Accepted for/Published in: JMIR Research Protocols
Date Submitted: Mar 15, 2019
Date Accepted: Aug 26, 2019
Visual analytic tools and techniques in population health and health services research: a scoping review protocol
ABSTRACT
Background:
Visual analytics promotes the understanding of data using visual, interactive techniques. Visual analytics outputs include flow maps and spatiotemporal hotspots for studying service gaps, disease distribution and service gaps. However, visual analytics refers to diverse ideas and the term in used inconsistently. The objective of this scoping review is to examine the state of science on visual analytics, and the various tools, strategies and frameworks used in population health and health services research.
Objective:
The purpose of this scoping review is to develop an overarching global view of established techniques, frameworks and methods of visual analytics in population health and health services research. The main objectives are to explore, map and synthesize the literature related to visual analytics, including the use of the term ‘visual analytics’ and its application in population health and health services research.
Methods:
We will primarily use Arksey and O’Malley’s approach, with improvements suggested by Levac et al and Peters et al to guide the scoping review methodology. One of the major challenges for this review was operationalizing the concepts for developing the search strategy, which is based on three main concepts: population health, health services research and visual analytics. We will include peer reviewed and grey literature sources from 2005 till March 2019. Independent teams of researchers will screen the titles and abstracts, while an expert third party will decide on the conflicts. Full text screening will follow in the same manner. Data will be abstracted and presented using the PRISM-ScR statement.
Results:
In this protocol, we present the methods for undertaking this scoping review. We present how we operationalized the varied concepts of population health, health services and visual analytics. The main results of the scoping review will synthesize peer reviewed and grey literature sources on the main methods of visual analytics in the interrelated fields of population health and health services research from 2005 till March 2019.
Conclusions:
Visual analytics is being increasingly used and integrated with emerging technologies to support decision-making using large data sets. This scoping review of the visual analytic tools, strategies and frameworks applied to population health data aims to increase awareness of this approach for uptake by decision-makers working within and towards developing the learning health system approach. Clinical Trial: Not applicable.
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