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.