Health and Bio Informatics
This project page only describes Research that (1) is related broadly to health- or bio- informatics, such as surveys or overviews of the field; or (2) doesn’t fit nicely into a more specific project from or lab. Over the years, the VACLab has also embarked on several more focused projects such as, for exmaple, the visual analysis of EHR data for outcomes studies and the visual analysis of mHealth data. Publications for those projects are not included here. See our full list of projects for more details.
Publications
Use and Usefulness of Risk Prediction Tools in Urologic Surgery: Current State and Path Forward
INTRODUCTION: While the enthusiasm for artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance surgical decision-making continues to grow, the …
Elizabeth M. Nazzal, Allison M. Deal, Benjamin Borgert, Hillary Heiling, Antonia V. Bennett, Susan Blalock, William Meeks, Raymond Fang, Randall Teal, Maihan B. Vu, David Gotz, Matthew Nielsen, Alex H.S. Harris, Ethan Basch, Hung-Jui Tan
March 2025
Urollogic Practice (Online Ahead of Print)
Gist overrides numeric risk perception in surgical decision-making
Despite their wide availability, risk prediction tools have had limited impact on surgical care. In a previous randomized experiment, …
Elizabeth M Nazzal, David Gotz, Hillary M Heiling, Allison M Deal, Kara Giannone, Deborah Usinger, Susan Blalock, Antonia V Bennett, Matthew E Nielsen, Daniel S Reuland, Alex S Harris, Allison Lazard, Greg Sacks, Ethan M Basch, Hung-Jui Tan
May 2024
American Urological Association (AUA) Annual Meeting Abstract
Clinical Decision Support in Surgery: A Mixed Methods Study on Design and Implementation Perspectives from Urologists
Objective: To assess urologist attitudes toward clinical decision support (CDS) embedded into the electronic health record (EHR) and …
Hung-Jui Tan, Brooke N Spratte, Allison M Deal, Hillary M Heiling, Elizabeth M Nazzal, William D Meeks, Raymond Fang, Randall Teal, Maihan B Vu, Antonia V Bennett, Susan Blalock, Arlene E Chung, David Gotz, Matthew E Nielsen, Daniel S Reuland, Alex S Harris, Ethan M Basch
April 2024
Journal of Urology (Volume 190, August Issue)
How Does Imperfect Automatic Indexing Affect Semantic Search Performance?
Documents in the health domain are often annotated with semantic concepts (i.e., terms) from controlled vocabularies. As the volume of …
June 2023
Proceedings of the 6th International Workshop on Health Natural Language Processing (HealthNLP)
GRAFS: Graphical Faceted Search System to Support Conceptual Understanding in Exploratory Search
When people search for information about a new topic within large document collections, they implicitly construct a mental model of the …
Electronic Health Record Use and Perceptions Among Urologic Surgeons
Objective: Electronic health records (EHRs) have become widely adopted with increasing emphasis on improving care delivery. …
Hung-Jui Tan, Arlene E Chung, David Gotz, Allison M Deal, Hillary M Heiling, Randall Teal, Maihan Vu, William D Meeks, Raymond Fang, Antonia V Bennett, Matthew E Nielsen, Ethan M Basch
January 2023
Applied Clinical Informatics (ACI) (Volume 14, Issue 2)
The effect of visual and numeric risk information on surgeon behavior: a randomized, clinical vignette experiment
INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVE: The treatment patients receive depends more on their surgeon than their disease. Risk prediction tools aim …
Hung-Jui Tan, David Gotz, Hillary M Heiling, Allison M Deal, Kara Giannone, Deborah Usinger, Susan Blalock, Antonia V Bennett, Matthew E Nielsen, Daniel S Reuland, Alex S Harris, Allison Lazard, Greg Sacks, Ethan M Basch
January 2023
Journal of Urology (Volume 209, Issue Supplement 4)
Visual and numeric risk information reduces variation in surgeon risk perception: results from a randomized, clinical vignette experiment
INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVE: Differences in risk perception is a major driver of variation in surgery. Risk prediction tools aim to …
Hung-Jui Tan, David Gotz, Hillary M Heiling, Allison M Deal, Kara Giannone, Deborah Usinger, Susan Blalock, Antonia V Bennett, Matthew E Nielsen, Daniel S Reuland, Alex S Harris, Allison Lazard, Greg Sacks, Ethan M Basch
January 2023
Journal of Urology (Volume 209, Issue Supplement 4)
Expanding the Existing Cadence Event Sequence Visual Analysis Tool to Support the Standardized Data Model OMOP CDM
The differences in health data models obstruct the use of analytics tools on new datasets or at other institutions. This work presents …
Local, Interactive, and Actionable: A Pandemic Behavioral Nudge
The informational environment surrounding the Covid-19 pandemic has been widely recognized as fragmented, politicized, and complex. …
Risk Prediction Tools in an Intuition-Based World: A Mixed Methods Study of Urologic Surgeons
A plethora of risk prediction tools (RPTs) have been developed to support surgical decision-making. However, past studies indicate both …
Hung-Jui Tan, Allison Deal, Antonia Bennett, Susan Blalock, Alex Sox-Harris, Daniel Reuland, Arlene Chung, David Gotz, Matthew Nielsen, Ethan Basch
September 2021
American Urological Association (AUA) Annual Meeting Abstract
An Evaluation of Clinical Natural Language Processing Systems to Extract Symptomatic Adverse Events from Patient-Authored Free-Text Narratives
Symptomatic adverse events (AEs) such as nausea are common among patients enrolled in cancer clinical trials. Historically, this …
March 2021
American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA) Informatics Summit Podium Abstract
Selection-Bias-Corrected Visualization via Dynamic Reweighting
The collection and visual analysis of large-scale data from complex systems, such as electronic health records or clickstream data, has …
Visual Causality Analysis of Event Sequence Data
Causality is crucial to understanding the mechanisms behind complex systems and making decisions that lead to intended outcomes. Event …
January 2021
IEEE TVCG (Volume 27, Issue 2)
Urologist Attitudes towards Risk Prediction Tools, Electronic Health Records, and Surgical Clinical Decision Support
Clinical Decision Support (CDS) aims to provide users with timely, well-curated information to optimize decision-making, clinical …
Hung-Jui Tan, Allison Deal, Antonia Bennett, Susan Blalock, Arlene Chung, David Gotz, Matthew Nielsen, Dan Reuland, Alex Sox-Harris, Ethan Basch
November 2020
American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA) Annual Symposium Posters
Visual Analytics to Combat Selection Bias in Retrospective EHR Data Analyses
Retrospective analyses of electronic health records (EHRs) and other health data sources are increasingly common as investigators seek …
November 2020
American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA) Annual Symposium Podium Abstract
A Rapidly Deployed Interactive Online Visualization System to Support Fatality Management During the COVID-19 Pandemic
Objective: To create an online visualization to support fatality management in North Carolina. Materials and Methods: A web …
Analysing EHR Navigation Patterns and Digital Workflows Among Physicians During ICU Pre-Rounds
Background: Some physicians in intensive care units (ICUs) report that electronic health records (EHRs) can be cumbersome and …
Cameron Coleman, David Gotz, Samantha Eaker, Elaine James, Thomas Bice, Shannon Carson, Saif Khairat
June 2020
Health Information Management Journal (Online ahead of print)
Evaluating Visual Analytics for Health Informatics Applications: A Systematic Review from the AMIA VIS Working Group Task Force on Evaluation
Objective: This article reports results from a systematic literature review related to the evaluation of data visualizations and visual …
Danny T Y Wu, Annie T Chen, John D Manning, Gal Levy-Fix, Uba Backonja, David Borland, Jesus J Caban, Dawn W Dowding, Harry Hochheiser, Vadim Kagan, Swaminathan Kandaswamy, Manish Kumar, Alexis Nunez, Eric Pan, David Gotz
February 2019
JAMIA (Volume 26, Issue 4)
Health and Fitness Apps for Hands-Free Voice-Activated Assistants: Content Analysis
Background: Hands-free voice-activated assistants and their associated devices have recently gained popularity with the release of …
September 2018
JMIR mHealth uHealth (Volume 6, Issue 9)
Assessing the Status Quo of EHR Accessibility, Usability, and Knowledge Dissemination
Aim: This study was performed to better characterize accessibility to electronic health records (EHRs) among informatics professionals …
May 2018
eGEMS (Volume 6, Issue 1)
ECGLens: Interactive Visual Exploration of Large Scale ECG Data for Arrhythmia Detection
The Electrocardiogram (ECG) is commonly used to detect arrhythmias. Traditionally, a single ECG observation is used for diagnosis, …
April 2018
ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
Clinician Perspectives on Barriers and Facilitators for Implementing Patient-Generated Health Data into Clinical Care
December 2017
Abstract and Oral Presentation at AcademyHealth Science of Dissemination and Implementation Conference
Research gaps in routine health information system design barriers to data quality and use in low‐ and middle‐income countries: A literature review
Despite the potential impact of health information system (HIS) design barriers on health data quality and use and, ultimately, health …
August 2017
International Journal of Health Planning and Management (Volume 33, Issue 1)
Comparative Visualization of the RNA Suboptimal Conformational Ensemble In Vivo
When a ribonucleic acid (RNA) molecule folds, it often does not adopt a single, well-defined conformation. The folding energy landscape …
June 2017
Biophysical Journal (Volume 113, Issue 2)
Data-Driven Healthcare: Challenges and Opportunities for Interactive Visualization
This article in IEEE Computing Edge is a reprint of the earlier paper by the same title published in IEEE CG&A in 2016. It was …
Evaluating Visual Analytics for Health Informatics Applications: A Progress Report from the AMIA VIS Working Group Task Force on Evaluation
The American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA) Visual Analytics Working Group (VIS WG) established a Task Force on Evaluation …
November 2016
Visual Analytics in Healthcare (VAHC) Workshop
Data-Driven Healthcare: Challenges and Opportunities for Interactive Visualization
The healthcare industry’s widespread digitization efforts are reshaping one of the largest sectors of the world’s economy. …
System Design Barriers to HIS Data Use in Low and Middle-income Countries: A Literature Review
The ability of low and middle-income countries (LMICs) to monitor and measure their progress toward sustainable development health …
January 2016
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Information and Library Science Technical Report 2016-01
Visual Analytics for Healthcare
Healthcare Data Analytics, Edited by Chandan K. Reddy and Charu C. Aggarwal. ISBN 9781482232110
April 2015
Healthcare Data Analytics (Chapman and Hall/CRC Press)
Visual analytics in healthcare – opportunities and research challenges
Visual analytics is an emerging discipline that has shown significant promise in addressing many of [health] information overload …
GapFlow: Visualizing Gaps in Care for Medical Treatment Plans
Despite the widespread adoption of clinical guidelines (i.e. canonical treatment plan templates that represent generally accepted best …
A3-2: The Signs and Symptoms of Heart Failure are Frequently Documented to Wax and Wane in Years Prior to a Clinical Diagnosis of Heart Failure: Data from 4,644 Patients Followed in Primary Care
Background/Aims. The diagnosis of heart failure (HF) is frequently delayed until patients are symptomatic enough to require …
Steven Steinhubl, Jimeng Sun, Rajakrishnan Vijayakrishnan, Roy Byrd, Zahra Daar, David Gotz, Shahram Ebadollahi, Walter Stewart
September 2013
Clinical Medicine and Research (Volume 11, Number 3)
Data-driven exploration of care plans for patients
CareFlow is a novel visual analytics tool designed to help doctors devise a care plan for their patient. Using historical outcomes from …
April 2013
ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, Extended Abstracts
Visualizations to Support Patient-Clinician Communication of Care Plans
CareFlow is a novel system designed to help doctors and patients communicate about possible care plans and their outcomes. Using …
Multifaceted Visual Analytics for Healthcare Applications
A vast amount of electronic healthcare information is now available, ranging from online healthcare articles to patient electronic …
August 2012
IBM Journal of Research and Development (Volume 56, Issue 5)
Visual Cluster Analysis in Support of Clinical Decision Intelligence
Electronic health records (EHRs) contain a wealth of information about patients. In addition to providing efficient and accurate …
October 2011
American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA) Annual Symposium
A Visualization Tool for Navigation of Online Disease Literature
Online health information portals provide valuable content to casual consumers. Used properly, this medical information can help …
October 2010
American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA) Annual Symposium Posters
Predicting Patient's Trajectory of Physiological Data using Temporal Trends in Similar Patients: A System for Near-Term Prognostics
Providing near-term prognostic insight to clinicians helps them to better assess the near-term impact of their decisions and potential …
October 2010
American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA) Annual Symposium
DiseaseAtlas: Multi-facet Visual Analytics for Online Disease Articles
Online health information portals provide valuable content to casual consumers. However, the page-oriented nature of these resources …
A Virtual Environment for the Treatment of Chronic Combat-Related Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is one of the most disabling psychopathological conditions affecting the veteran population. An …
Larry F Hodges, Barbara O Rothbaum, Renato Alarcon, David Ready, Fran Shahar, Ken Graap, Jarrell Pair, Philip Hebert, David Gotz, Brian Wills, David Baltzell
March 1999
CyberPsychology and Behavior (Volume 2, Issue 1)
Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy for PTSD Vietnam Veterans: A Case Study
Virtual reality (VR) integrates real-time computer graphics, body tracking devices, visual displays, and other sensory input devices to …
Barbara O Rothbaum, Larry Hodges, Renato Alarcon, David Ready, Fran Shahar, Ken Graap, Jarrell Pair, Philip Hebert, David Gotz, Brian Wills, David Baltzell
March 1999
Journal of Traumatic Stress (Volume 12, Issue 2)
Virtual Vietnam: A Virtual Environment for the Treatment of Vietnam War Veterans with Post-traumatic Stress Disorder
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is one of the most disabling psychopathological conditions affecting the veteran population. An …
Larry F Hodges, Barbara O Rothbaum, Renato Alarcon, David Ready, Fran Shahar, Ken Graap, Jarrell Pair, Philip Hebert, David Gotz, Brian Wills, David Baltzell
January 1998
International Conference on Artificial Reality and Tele-Existence