LifeLines provide a general visualization environment for personal
histories that can be applied to medical and court records, professional
histories and other types of biographical data. A one screen overview
shows multiple facets of the records. Aspects, for example medical
conditions or legal cases, are displayed as individual time lines, while
icons indicate discrete events, such as physician consultations or legal
reviews. Line color and thickness illustrate relationships or
significance, scaling tools and filters allow users to focus on part of
the information. LifeLines reduce the chances of missing information,
facilitate spotting anomalies and trends, streamline access to details,
while remaining tailorable and easily sharable between applications. The
paper describes the use of LifeLines for youth records of the Maryland
Department of Juvenile Justice and also for medical records. User's
feedback was collected using a Visual Basic prototype for the youth
record. Techniques to deal with complex records are reviewed and issues
of a standard personal record format are discussed.
additional reference numbers in the format of the next line
(Also cross-referenced as CAR-TR-787, ISR-TR-95-88