Author: Kristen Savage
About this viz: When a patient is hospitalized, they are often diagnosed with more than one condition at a time. This comorbidity data can be complex and hard to decipher. Using CTS hospitalization data, this visualization shows comorbidities recorded during hospital touchpoints (patient discharge, ambulatory surgery, and emergency department visits). Comorbidities were classified using Clinical Classifications Software (CCS) code categories.
The top portion of the viz shows hospitalization comorbidity data at a visit level. In other words, what conditions were diagnosed concurrently during participant hospital visits? Those comorbidities are represented by an arch. The wider the arch, the more times those two conditions were diagnosed during the same hospital touchpoint.
The bottom portion of the viz shows comorbidities at the participant level. Conditions are connected by an arch if a study participant was diagnosed with those comorbidities at any time during follow-up. If a participant had a hospital visit for a circulatory system issue in the late 1990s and then another hospital visit for an eye disorder in 2015, those conditions are connected by an arch. Again, the wider the arch, the more participants diagnosed (over follow-up) with both those conditions. For example, the most common comorbidity represented by the widest arch in both charts is Endocrine & Metabolic and Circulatory System.