JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Accurate documentation of back pain is essential for effective diagnosis and treatment; however, conventional paper-based methods often lack precision and standardization, limiting their clinical utility.

Objective:

To develop and evaluate an anatomically accurate, digitally segmented, open-source vector illustration of a sex-neutral human body (front and back views) designed to facilitate standardized documentation of back pain and alignment with medical coding systems such as SNOMED CT.

Methods:

An interdisciplinary team employed a rigorous, iterative methodology informed by standard anatomical references to create the foundational illustration, emphasizing anatomical precision and digital compatibility. A representative survey-based user study (N=298) was conducted in the UK through the Prolific platform to evaluate perceived usefulness, confidence in accurately marking hypothetical pain regions (not actually drawing on the illustration), aesthetic appeal, and gather improvement suggestions. Feedback from the survey guided final refinements to the illustration, which is published under the CC BY 4.0 license in this work.

Results:

Participants reported high confidence in their ability to identify pain regions using the developed vector illustration and found the design visually appealing. User feedback highlighted the need for improved visual clarity, leading to adjustments in color contrast and anatomical proportions. Aesthetic concerns, such as the removal of areolae and simplification of facial features, were also addressed to enhance user comfort and neutrality.

Conclusions:

The resulting anatomically accurate vector illustration provides a robust foundation for digital documentation tools aimed at improving back pain documentation accuracy, patient-provider communication, and integration with electronic health records. By releaseing it under the CC BY 4.0 license, we encourage broad adoption and community-driven improvements.