Medical Data Visualization: Toward Integrated Clinical Workstations

s our ability to access the abundance of clinical data grows, it is imperative that methods to organize and to visualize this information be in place so as not to overwhelm users: increasingly, users are faced with information overload. Moreover, the manner of presentation is fundamental to how such information is interpreted, and can be the turning point in uncovering new insights and knowledge about a patient or a disease. And of course, medical imaging is itself an inherently visual medium. This chapter presents work related to the visualization of medical data, focusing on issues related to navigation and presentation by drawing upon imaging and other disciplines for examples of display and integration methods. We first cover different visual paradigms that have been developed (e.g., icons, graphs), grouped along dimensions that emphasize the different types of data relationships and workflow. Subsequently, issues related to combining these visualizations are given. As no single graphical user interface (GUI) can accommodate all users and the spectrum of tasks seen in the healthcare environment, the ultimate goal is to create an adaptive graphical interface that integrates clinical information so as to be conducive to a given user’s objectives: efforts in this direction are discussed. Throughout, we describe applications that illustrate the many open issues revolving around medical data visualization.