A picture of the patient. A new perspective on vital signs.
Visual Patient translates monitoring information into an animated patient avatar. Changes in the avatar’s appearance represent changes in physiological parameters, bringing multiple signals into a shared visual view.
These interactive simulators are simplified research and teaching models using simulated example data. They are intended for education and demonstration, not for use in patient care or clinical decision-making.
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28 publications and research documents coauthored by David W. Tscholl. Journal articles, protocols and preprints are identified individually. Papers mentioning Visual Patient Avatar →
2026
JMIR Formative Research · Computer-based, quantitative, qualitative · Original research
Johannes Köhler, Max Ebensperger, Cynthia A Hunn, Arend Rahrisch, Achilles Delis, Florian Piekarski, Gregor Massoth, Florian J Raimann, Kai Zacharowski, David W Tscholl, Tadzio Raoul Roche
Silis Y Jiang, Tadzio R Roche, Krzysztof Cybulski, Gaspar Dugac, Lukas Meier, Virginia E Tangel, Max Ebensperger, Andreas Maskos, Michael Tucci, Christoph B Nöthiger, Markus Kalisch, Zachary A Turnbull, David W Tscholl
Cynthia Alexandra Hunn, Hannes Bruns, Sebastian Sahli, Luca Wachtendorf, Johannes Schäfer, Stefan Schwerin, Achilles Delis, Markus Kalisch, Gaspar Dugac, Arend Rahrisch, Max Ebensperger, Arian Karimitar, Gregor Massoth, Christopher Neuhaus, Alina Dubatovka, Christoph B Nöthiger, G. Gasciauskaite, Tadzio Raoul Roche, David W Tscholl
Protocol; comparative outcome results are not reported in this paper.
Indre Radaviciute, Cynthia A. Hunn, Justyna Lunkiewicz, Petar Milovanovic, Jan F. Willms, Christoph B. Nöthiger, Emanuela Keller, David W. Tscholl, Greta Gasciauskaite
Lisa Bergauer, Julia Braun, Tadzio Raoul Roche, Patrick Meybohm, Sebastian Hottenrott, Kai Zacharowski, Florian Jürgen Raimann, Eva Rivas, Manuel López-Baamonde, Michael Thomas Ganter, Christoph Beat Nöthiger, Donat R. Spahn, David Werner Tscholl, Samira Akbas
Amos Malorgio, David Henckert, Giovanna Schweiger, Julia Braun, Kai Zacharowski, Florian J. Raimann, Florian Piekarski, Patrick Meybohm, Sebastian Hottenrott, Corinna Froehlich, Donat R. Spahn, Christoph B. Noethiger, David W. Tscholl, Tadzio R. Roche
Justyna Lunkiewicz, Greta Gasciauskaite, Tadzio Raoul Roche, Samira Akbas, Christoph B. Nöthiger, Michael T. Ganter, Patrick Meybohm, Sebastian Hottenrott, Kai Zacharowski, Florian Jürgen Raimann, Eva Rivas, Manuel López-Baamonde, Elisabeth Anna Beller, David Werner Tscholl, Lisa Bergauer
Tadzio R. Roche, Sadiq Said, Julia Braun, Elise J. C. Maas, Carl Machado, Bastian Grande, Michaela Kolbe, Donat R. Spahn, Christoph B. Nöthiger, David W. Tscholl
Sadiq Said, Malgorzata Gozdzik, Tadzio Raoul Roche, Julia Braun, Julian Rössler, Alexander Kaserer, Donat R Spahn, Christoph B Nöthiger, David Werner Tscholl
Publications that discuss or cite Visual Patient Avatar research, without David W. Tscholl as a coauthor. Summaries distinguish direct discussion from background citations. These papers are excluded from our group’s publication count.
2026 · Human Factors · Research article · Background citation
Cites Visual Patient research when discussing the limitations of conventional numerical monitoring. Tests the arrangement of a separate graphical display in a simulated monitoring task, with attention to multitasking and workload.
2026 · Proceedings of the 59th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, 3473–3482 · Conference paper · author manuscript · Direct discussion
Cites Visual Patient studies as related work for PatientLens, a separate system that uses AI to summarize clinical reports through interactive avatars. Summary based on the author manuscript.
Describes patient avatars as a way to present vital signs holistically and help clinicians recognize abnormalities. Cites Visual Patient eye-tracking and user-perception research within a broader review of digital health in intensive care.
Cites the Visual Patient review in the context of monitor complexity and cognitive demands. Surveys ICU nurses’ workload across different technology-related tasks.
Reviews 14 studies of Visual Patient Avatar published between 2018 and 2023, covering vital-sign perception and recall, cognitive workload, and user acceptance. Also identifies areas for further development in visualization and data integration.
Cites the Visual Patient eye-tracking study as an example of eye tracking in healthcare interaction research. The review’s main focus is how readers process multimodal texts.
Discusses avatar-based monitoring as an example of interface design that may support situation awareness. Places findings from Visual Patient simulation research in the wider context of teamwork and healthcare system design.
Discusses Visual Patient research while exploring how medical avatars could support remote health monitoring during spaceflight. Proposes potential applications for future missions; it does not test Visual Patient in space.
Highlights the 2020 Visual Patient review within a collection on healthcare sensing technologies. Summarizes laboratory findings concerning information transfer, perceived workload, and diagnostic certainty.
Cites the Visual Patient review within a broader discussion of situation awareness. Proposes a framework for designing real-time simulation and decision-support systems in healthcare.
Cites the 2018 patient-avatar study as an example of intuitive visualization of complex physiological relationships. The article itself investigates the design of explainable AI with clinicians and developers.
Discusses Visual Patient and the split-screen simulation study as examples of graphical patient monitoring. Uses this work as a starting point for a proposed radar-plot approach.
Discusses the cognitive rationale for combining vital signs in a patient avatar, drawing on Roche and colleagues’ simulation study. Considers the advantages of intuitive visual integration alongside limitations such as missing trends and the role of conventional monitoring.
Examines technologies that support situation awareness in nursing, including animated patient avatars and several Visual Patient studies. Discusses the findings within their laboratory and simulation settings.
Cites the 2018 patient-avatar study in its discussion of clinical information visualization. Develops a separate dashboard for reviewing repeated anesthesia encounters in pediatric radiation treatment.
Sylvia Pelayo, Yalini Senathirajah; Section Editors for the IMIA Yearbook Section on Human Factors and Organizational Issues
Selects the 2018 animated patient-avatar study among four notable papers in human factors and organizational issues in medical informatics. Summarizes its approach to making vital-sign information easier to perceive.
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