TY - CONF T1 - Aligning temporal data by sentinel events: discovering patterns in electronic health records T2 - Proceedings of the twenty-sixth annual SIGCHI conference on Human factors in computing systems Y1 - 2008 A1 - Wang,Taowei David A1 - Plaisant, Catherine A1 - Quinn,Alexander J. A1 - Stanchak,Roman A1 - Murphy,Shawn A1 - Shneiderman, Ben KW - electronic health record KW - Evaluation KW - Information Visualization KW - search KW - temporal data KW - Uncertainty AB - Electronic Health Records (EHRs) and other temporal databases contain hidden patterns that reveal important cause-and-effect phenomena. Finding these patterns is a challenge when using traditional query languages and tabular displays. We present an interactive visual tool that complements query formulation by providing operations to align, rank and filter the results, and to visualize estimates of the intervals of validity of the data. Display of patient histories aligned on sentinel events (such as a first heart attack) enables users to spot precursor, co-occurring, and aftereffect events. A controlled study demonstrates the benefits of providing alignment (with a 61% speed improvement for complex tasks). A qualitative study and interviews with medical professionals demonstrates that the interface can be learned quickly and seems to address their needs. JA - Proceedings of the twenty-sixth annual SIGCHI conference on Human factors in computing systems T3 - CHI '08 PB - ACM CY - New York, NY, USA SN - 978-1-60558-011-1 UR - http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1357054.1357129 M3 - 10.1145/1357054.1357129 ER -