Microbiome Reports
Context
The company started developing a new product based on 16S amplicon sequencing to aid in the diagnostic of digestive issues.
The data
A typical result (generated by the bioinformatics team) would give a count table with organisms and their relative abundance in the patient microbiome.
The report
Given the commercial model chosen for the product, results were presented in a report, formatted as a PDF file instead of a web application.
The conclusions were drawn from the data based on:
- scientific literature
- patient symptom's
- the company historical data of patients and healthy individuals
- specialized algorithms
The challenge
The project posed exciting challenges, to quote a few:
- Data density
- Conclusion characteristics
- Uneven audience background (medical doctors, nutritionists, and patients).
The solution
- The report can't present a diagnostic; the most crucial piece of information is binary: "Balanced/Unbalanced gut flora."
- Without a definitive diagnosis, we provide both quantitative and qualitative data on the Bacteria detected by the product to help doctors and nutritionists decide their course of action.
- For some features, we show the patient how he compares with the general population.
- We present literature connecting some features to patient symptoms.
One-page review
A full report is composed of multiple pages, here I present the "Overview" page with some elements discussed in this portfolio article:
Conclusion
The first version of the report was just a massive amount of text, proving difficult for doctors and patients to assimilate. During the course of the project, we managed to translate the textual biological data into visual components, with made the data easier to understand.