Development of a Visual Analytics Tool for Polytrauma Patients: Proof of Concept for a New Assessment Tool Using a Multiple Layer Sankey Diagram in a Single-Center Database

Introduction Early physiological assessment of multiple injured patients is crucial for decision making and has relied on personal experience of trauma experts. We have developed a new visual analytics tool (Sankey diagram, Watson Trauma Health care tool) that includes known prognostic parameters for polytrauma patients to help guide assessment and treatment decisions for physicians involved in trauma care. Methods A prospectively collected trauma database of a single level I trauma center (3655 patients) was used. Inclusion criteria: age >16 years, an injury severity score (ISS) >16 and presence of a complete data set in the database. Data collected included admission values of patient age, injury scoring, shock classification, temperature, acid–base and hemostasis parameters. All of these parameters were collected daily as longitudinal parameters. Endpoints of the clinical course we considered were sepsis, SIRS and early in hospital mortality (