Visualising medical evidence on sepsis treatment

Abstract

Visual information can have a range of benefits for busy health practitioners. At The BMJ, we often use visuals to provide quick summaries of information from at times lengthy articles. This paper presents a case study of the design process for an interactive graphic on sepsis treatment, aiming to update doctors working in intensive care units of current evidence. Through explaining this design process, four major challenges for the use of interactive graphics in science publishing are highlighted: (1) how to identify suitable knowledge for visualisations; (2) how to select an appropriate depth of information for a particular project; (3) how interactive graphics can be a permanent part of the scientific record, and (4) how they can be deployed across a range of platforms and devices.