title: Big data in medical informatics: improving education through visual analytics.
abstract: A continuous effort to improve healthcare education today is currently driven from the need to create competent health professionals able to meet healthcare demands. Limited research reporting how educational data manipulation can help in healthcare education improvement. The emerging research field of visual analytics has the advantage to combine big data analysis and manipulation techniques, information and knowledge representation, and human cognitive strength to perceive and recognise visual patterns. The aim of this study was therefore to explore novel ways of representing curriculum and educational data using visual analytics. Three approaches of visualization and representation of educational data were presented. Five competencies at undergraduate medical program level addressed in courses were identified to inaccurately correspond to higher education board competencies. Different visual representations seem to have a potential in impacting on the ability to perceive entities and connections in the curriculum data.
authors.affiliation: Department of Learning Informatics Management and Ethics, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden.
authors.forename: Christos
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Vaitsis
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurobiology, Care Sciences and Society, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden.
authors.forename: Gunnar
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Nilsson
authors.affiliation: Department of Learning Informatics Management and Ethics, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden.
authors.forename: Nabil
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Zary
mesh_terms: D003196:Computer Graphics; D003194:Computer-Assisted Instruction / Q000379:methods*; D004504:Education, Medical, Undergraduate / Q000379:methods* / Q000458:organization & administration*; D008490:Medical Informatics / Q000379:methods / Q000458:organization & administration*; D017145:Models, Educational; D013663:Teaching / Q000379:methods*; D014584:User-Computer Interface