“Less words, more pictures”: creating and sharing data visualizations from a remote health monitoring system with clinicians to improve cancer pain management
BackgroundThe Behavioral and Environmental Sensing and Intervention for Cancer (BESI-C) is a remote health monitoring system (RHMS) developed by our interdisciplinary team that collects holistic physiological, behavioral, psychosocial, and contextual data related to pain from dyads of patients with...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2025-04-01
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| Series: | Frontiers in Digital Health |
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| Online Access: | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fdgth.2025.1520990/full |
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| author | Virginia LeBaron Natalie Crimp Nutta Homdee Kelly Reed Victoria Petermann William Ashe Leslie Blackhall Bryan Lewis |
| author_facet | Virginia LeBaron Natalie Crimp Nutta Homdee Kelly Reed Victoria Petermann William Ashe Leslie Blackhall Bryan Lewis |
| author_sort | Virginia LeBaron |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | BackgroundThe Behavioral and Environmental Sensing and Intervention for Cancer (BESI-C) is a remote health monitoring system (RHMS) developed by our interdisciplinary team that collects holistic physiological, behavioral, psychosocial, and contextual data related to pain from dyads of patients with cancer and their family caregivers via environmental and wearable (smartwatch) sensors.MethodsR, Python, and Canva software were used to create a series of static and interactive data visualizations (e.g., visual representations of data in the form of graphs, figures, or pictures) from de-identified BESI-C data to share with palliative care clinicians during virtual and in-person 1-hour feedback sessions. Participants were shown a sequence of 5–6 different data visualizations related to patient and caregiver self-reported pain events, environmental factors, and quality of life indicators, completed an electronic survey that assessed clarity, usefulness, and comprehension, and then engaged in a structured discussion. Quantitative survey results were descriptively analyzed and “think aloud” qualitative comments thematically summarized and used to iterate data visualizations between feedback sessions.ResultsSix to 12 interdisciplinary palliative care clinicians from an academic medical center, a local hospice, and a community hospital within Central Virginia participated in five data visualization feedback sessions. Both survey results and group discussion feedback revealed a preference for more familiar, simpler data visualizations that focused on the physical aspects of pain assessment, such as number of high intensity pain events and response to pharmacological interventions. Preferences for degree of data granularity and content varied by discipline and care delivery model, and there was mixed interest in seeing caregiver reported data. Overall, non-physician participants expressed greater interest in visualizations that included environmental variables impacting pain and non-pharmacological interventions.ConclusionClinicians desired higher-level (i.e., less granular/detailed) views of complex sensing data with a “take home” message that can be quickly processed. Orienting clinicians to unfamiliar, contextual data sources from remote health monitoring systems (such as environmental data and quality of life data from caregivers) and integrating these data into clinical workflows is critical to ensure these types of data can optimally inform the patient's plan of care. Future work should focus on customizing data visualization formats and viewing options, as well as explore ethical issues related to sharing data visualizations with key stakeholders. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-e74febabef1447eebfaa2d62f062fa0a |
| institution | DOAJ |
| issn | 2673-253X |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-04-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Digital Health |
| spelling | doaj-art-e74febabef1447eebfaa2d62f062fa0a2025-08-20T03:13:21ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Digital Health2673-253X2025-04-01710.3389/fdgth.2025.15209901520990“Less words, more pictures”: creating and sharing data visualizations from a remote health monitoring system with clinicians to improve cancer pain managementVirginia LeBaron0Natalie Crimp1Nutta Homdee2Kelly Reed3Victoria Petermann4William Ashe5Leslie Blackhall6Bryan Lewis7Department of Research, University of Virginia School of Nursing, Charlottesville, VA, United StatesDepartment of Research, University of Virginia School of Nursing, Charlottesville, VA, United StatesCenter for Research Innovation and Biomedical Informatics, Faculty of Medical Technology, Mahidol University, Nakhon Pathom, ThailandDepartment of Research, University of Virginia School of Nursing, Charlottesville, VA, United StatesDepartment of Research, University of Virginia School of Nursing, Charlottesville, VA, United StatesDivision of Cardiovascular Medicine, Center for Advanced Medical Analytics, University of Virginia School of Medicine, Charlottesville, VA, United StatesDivision of General Medicine, Geriatrics, and Palliative Care, University of Virginia School of Medicine, Charlottesville, VA, United StatesUniversity of Virginia Biocomplexity Institute, Charlottesville, VA, United StatesBackgroundThe Behavioral and Environmental Sensing and Intervention for Cancer (BESI-C) is a remote health monitoring system (RHMS) developed by our interdisciplinary team that collects holistic physiological, behavioral, psychosocial, and contextual data related to pain from dyads of patients with cancer and their family caregivers via environmental and wearable (smartwatch) sensors.MethodsR, Python, and Canva software were used to create a series of static and interactive data visualizations (e.g., visual representations of data in the form of graphs, figures, or pictures) from de-identified BESI-C data to share with palliative care clinicians during virtual and in-person 1-hour feedback sessions. Participants were shown a sequence of 5–6 different data visualizations related to patient and caregiver self-reported pain events, environmental factors, and quality of life indicators, completed an electronic survey that assessed clarity, usefulness, and comprehension, and then engaged in a structured discussion. Quantitative survey results were descriptively analyzed and “think aloud” qualitative comments thematically summarized and used to iterate data visualizations between feedback sessions.ResultsSix to 12 interdisciplinary palliative care clinicians from an academic medical center, a local hospice, and a community hospital within Central Virginia participated in five data visualization feedback sessions. Both survey results and group discussion feedback revealed a preference for more familiar, simpler data visualizations that focused on the physical aspects of pain assessment, such as number of high intensity pain events and response to pharmacological interventions. Preferences for degree of data granularity and content varied by discipline and care delivery model, and there was mixed interest in seeing caregiver reported data. Overall, non-physician participants expressed greater interest in visualizations that included environmental variables impacting pain and non-pharmacological interventions.ConclusionClinicians desired higher-level (i.e., less granular/detailed) views of complex sensing data with a “take home” message that can be quickly processed. Orienting clinicians to unfamiliar, contextual data sources from remote health monitoring systems (such as environmental data and quality of life data from caregivers) and integrating these data into clinical workflows is critical to ensure these types of data can optimally inform the patient's plan of care. Future work should focus on customizing data visualization formats and viewing options, as well as explore ethical issues related to sharing data visualizations with key stakeholders.https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fdgth.2025.1520990/fullcancerpalliative carepain managementdata visualizationremote health monitoring and digital healthpatient and caregiver dyads |
| spellingShingle | Virginia LeBaron Natalie Crimp Nutta Homdee Kelly Reed Victoria Petermann William Ashe Leslie Blackhall Bryan Lewis “Less words, more pictures”: creating and sharing data visualizations from a remote health monitoring system with clinicians to improve cancer pain management Frontiers in Digital Health cancer palliative care pain management data visualization remote health monitoring and digital health patient and caregiver dyads |
| title | “Less words, more pictures”: creating and sharing data visualizations from a remote health monitoring system with clinicians to improve cancer pain management |
| title_full | “Less words, more pictures”: creating and sharing data visualizations from a remote health monitoring system with clinicians to improve cancer pain management |
| title_fullStr | “Less words, more pictures”: creating and sharing data visualizations from a remote health monitoring system with clinicians to improve cancer pain management |
| title_full_unstemmed | “Less words, more pictures”: creating and sharing data visualizations from a remote health monitoring system with clinicians to improve cancer pain management |
| title_short | “Less words, more pictures”: creating and sharing data visualizations from a remote health monitoring system with clinicians to improve cancer pain management |
| title_sort | less words more pictures creating and sharing data visualizations from a remote health monitoring system with clinicians to improve cancer pain management |
| topic | cancer palliative care pain management data visualization remote health monitoring and digital health patient and caregiver dyads |
| url | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fdgth.2025.1520990/full |
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