The case for working visually
Visual communication can make complex medical information easier to grasp and more inviting to read, while giving data patterns and relationships a form that words alone may not convey as readily.
Understanding and attention
Figures can convey concepts with fewer words and help readers understand and visualise data trends more easily than prose. Visuals can present complex information in an appealing and effective way, provide context for storytelling, help lay audiences understand difficult information and facilitate communication across cultures.
Information competes for attention with social-media algorithms and frequent notifications. Visuals and more engaging presentation can encourage people to consume information they might otherwise overlook. Adding emotion through a visual can help lay audiences engage with dry scientific data.
Visuals as part of medical writing
Writing and illustration can work together in communicating healthcare messages. Visuals add value to medical writing, and they can complement or replace text when readers have little time for complex scientific information.
A 2007 examination of samples from four medical journals—the Lancet, New England Journal of Medicine, JAMA and Journal of Laboratory and Clinical Medicine—found that one-fifth of article space was devoted to an average of three tables and three flow charts, graphs or photographs. A coherent vocabulary should be developed for discussing tables and visuals.
A history of visual explanation
Medical images have long conveyed information across language and literacy barriers: portable atlases contained anatomical illustrations and diagrams of medicinal plants, and the printing press supported more systematic medical visualisation during the Renaissance. Nineteenth-century diagrams helped communicate healthcare issues to politicians, patients and newly trained healthcare workers.
William Playfair (1759–1823) developed line plots, bar graphs and other simple data displays for economic and political work before they became widely used in biomedicine. In 1854, John Snow combined graphs with a conventional map to summarise reported cholera cases in London’s Soho and trace the disease’s pattern. Florence Nightingale’s rose charts of the 1850s showed that poor sanitary conditions caused more Crimean War soldiers to die from preventable disease than from wounds, informing hospital administrators about the problem. Étienne-Jules Marey’s motion animations captured human movement.
The COVID-19 pandemic again demonstrated the role of visualisation in tracking, exploring and explaining disease for public and policy decisions.