Integration and visualization of spatial data in LIFE

Abstract

It is usually a challenging task to integrate and analyze huge amounts of heterogeneous data in large medical research projects. Often meaningful new insights can be achieved by visualizing medical data on geographical maps. For instance in epidemiological studies, data is often explored on a spatial dimension. LIFE is a large epidemiological study, managed by the LIFE Research Center for Civilization Diseases at Leipzig University. The study investigates the health-related states of the local population, e.g. by looking at the role of lifestyle factors on major civilization diseases. To allow for an effective data exploration, the development of sophisticated data analysis and spatial visualization techniques is necessary. Here, we present the interactive web application LIFE Spatial Data Visualization System (LIFE-SDVS) that adds a geographical facet to the data integration and analysis workflow of the LIFE research project.