title: Interactive Visual Analysis of Image-Centric Cohort Study Data.
abstract: Epidemiological population studies impose information about a set of subjects (a cohort) to characterize disease-specific risk factors. Cohort studies comprise heterogenous variables describing the medical condition as well as demographic and lifestyle factors and, more recently, medical image data. We propose an Interactive Visual Analysis (IVA) approach that enables epidemiologists to rapidly investigate the entire data pool for hypothesis validation and generation. We incorporate image data, which involves shape-based object detection and the derivation of attributes describing the object shape. The concurrent investigation of image-based and non-image data is realized in a web-based multiple coordinated view system, comprising standard views from information visualization and epidemiological data representations such as pivot tables. The views are equipped with brushing facilities and augmented by 3D shape renderings of the segmented objects, e.g., each bar in a histogram is overlaid with a mean shape of the associated subgroup of the cohort. We integrate an overview visualization, clustering of variables and object shape for data-driven subgroup definition and statistical key figures for measuring the association between variables. We demonstrate the IVA approach by validating and generating hypotheses related to lower back pain as part of a qualitative evaluation.
authors.forename: Paul
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Klemm
authors.forename: Steffen
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Oeltze-Jafra
authors.forename: Kai
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Lawonn
authors.forename: Katrin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Hegenscheid
authors.forename: Henry
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Völzke
authors.forename: Bernhard
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Preim
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D015331:Cohort Studies; D003196:Computer Graphics; D003627:Data Interpretation, Statistical; D016208:Databases, Factual; D004813:Epidemiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D017116:Low Back Pain / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000473:pathology; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008875:Middle Aged; D015233:Models, Statistical