2.3 Visualizing comparative efficacy, safety and utilization for
benefit-risk assessments
The analytic code adapted from Hripcsak et al had focused their analysis
to drug utilization (visualized via sunburst charts), which was
insufficient for our purposes of incorporating utilization with efficacy
and safety 12. Taking sunburst charts as inspiration,
we iterated over various ways of layering on information on efficacy and
safety with utilization. We propose the use of a 100%, horizontally
stacked, utilization-adjusted bar chart, that incorporates both drug
utilization (represented by vertical bar thickness) as well as efficacy
and safety event proportions (represented by horizontal proportion
within each bar), to facilitate multiple comparisons in benefit-risk
assessments. The chart was created using R, version 3.6.0. SQL and R
codes used in this study are provided in the Supplementary Material.
The study was approved by the National Healthcare Group Domain Specific
Review Board, with a waiver for informed consent.