Project HiGHmed – Interactive Visualization for Infection Control

We develop novel interactive visualization and analysis methods for early detection of pathogen outbreaks and for tracing transmission pathways.

Bacteria and virus outbreaks in hospitals are an important topic in healthcare. Pathogen outbreaks endanger person’s health and cause high costs to the health care system.

Pathogens – bacteria and viruses – are transmitted from patient to patient. As pathogens spread from patient to patient, more and more patients get infected. In this way, thousands of patients get infected in hospitals every year.

It is important to detect pathogen transmission pathways and outbreaks early, to predict future transmissions and to identify putative infected patients.

We support this analysis via novel interactive visualization and data analysis. Our approaches are used by doctors, hygienists and infection control experts.

Our research covers:

  • Novel interactive visualizations for outbreak control
  • Novel interactive visualization techniques for transmission pathways
  • Novel visual analytics tools for model-based prediction and visualization of future disease spreading
  • Novel visual analytics tools for model-based identification of potentially infected patients

Cooperations:

  • Robert Koch-Institut (RKI),
  • Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin
  • Helmholtz-Zentrum für Infektionsforschung (HZI)
  • Universitätsmedizin Göttingen (UMG)
  • Medizinische Hochschule Hannover
  • Universitätsklinikum Heidelberg und Medizinische Fakultät der Universität Heidelberg
  • Universitätsklinikum Schleswig-Holstein (UKSH) – Campus Lübeck
  • Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität (WWU) Münster/ Universitätsklinikum Münster (UKM)

Publications: