Exploring medical family tree data using visual data mining

Abstract

Medical Family Tree can provide a branch-by-branch indication of the types of diseases that have been present in a family's past. Some of these diseases may be genetic in nature. By exploring a Medical Family Tree we can become more aware of any genetic factors that may put us at risk of developing genetically-linked diseases. The main purpose of this paper is to present a proposal on a study to explore the medical family data using visual data mining techniques. This article seeks to enable reader to basically understand how and why this type of research is being conducted and how it can be used to help medical practitioners in understanding family health and condition based on information gathered for family medical tree. Initial investigation suggest that visual data mining has huge potentials as it can visually help a lot people such as health practitioners, therapist, clinicians, social workers and others in various fields to understand the patient's family medical history and to look for recurring patterns of illness and behaviour. © 2013 Springer International Publishing.