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Data Visualization Using the Human Body as a Canvas for Data (304180)

Keywords: data visualization, communication, ggplot2, mapping, human body

In many therapeutic areas, symptom severity is captured for different body regions. For example, patient-reported outcomes may report moderate (severity) pain (symptom) in the right arm (location). A clinician may report severe (severity) redness (symptom) in the lower extremities (location). Summaries by symptom and location produce detailed tables that are difficult for readers to understand and interpret.

The presented methods use data visualization with the human body as the canvas onto which symptoms and severity are displayed implemented through ggplot2 in R. The first approach overlays symbols on impacted body regions with symbol type indicating symptoms, size representing proportion of patients and color representing severity. The second approach utilizes the map function. Each body region, like a geographical region on a map, are colored according to symptom severity.

Not only does this allow for complex information to be easily digestible, but it also provides a bridge between statistical results and the medical stakeholders resulting in effective communication.