Interactive Visual Analytics System to support decision-making process
According to the Public health Agency in Canada, children and youth injuries kill more Canadian children and youth aged 14 and under than all diseases combined. Injury constitutes the leading cause of death among children and youth in Canada and the leading cause of hospitalization among 10 to 14 year olds. Canadian children and youth injuries impose an overwhelming financial burden to the Canadian health care system due to costs of long days of hospitalization and home health care.
Massive injury data present a challenge for the public health community to explore, analyze, synthesize valuable information and make timely informed decisions. The British Columbia Injury Research and Prevention Unit (BCIRPU) at the BC Children’s Hospital strives to provide injury researchers, epidemiologists, injury prevention practitioners and policy makers with an interactive visualization system that would help injury stakeholders to visually explore heterogeneous and complex injury datasets, synthesize critical information and develop fundamental policies and programs to strengthen the Child and Youth injury surveillance, research and prevention.
The main objective of this research study focuses on the design and evaluation of an Interactive Visual Analytics System to support the decision-making process for the BC Child and Youth Injury Prevention. Visual Analytics (VA) is defined as “the science of analytical reasoning facilitated by interactive visual interfaces”. This research exploits Visual Analytics tools and techniques to leverage injury stakeholder’s cognitive and perceptual capabilities and enable them to understand and make sense of complex and massive injury data in order to make informed and timely decisions and take actions to improve child and youth injury prevention in Canada.
This research project is conducted in collaboration with the University of British Columbia (UBC) and sponsored by the Canadian Institute for Health Research (CIHR) and the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC).
Researchers:
Samar Al-Hajj, PhD Candidate.
Dr. Brian Fisher.
Dr. Ian Pike (UBC/Child and Family Research Institute).
Contact:
samar_al-hajj@sfu.ca