Original art and artist’s blurbs are presented in collaboration with the students of the University of Illinois Chicago program in Biomedical Visualization.

by Natalie Yoshioka, BA
I spent the most time trying to find an exciting visual metaphor that would best represent the recommendation of building trust within a community over an extended period of time. I didn’t want to rely on solutions that were too obvious or simplistic to describe the article themes. Precision medicine is often a big data problem, where researchers are trying to find a solution within a depth of patient data and information. This drew me to the idea of a researcher trying to find a fish within a whirlpool, which loosely represents large amounts of genetic or patient medical information. The researcher is seen to be visually separated from the rest of the group and is clearly an outsider. However, even across a length of teetering boats and relationships, everyone is working together collaboratively towards a common goal. The bright, sunny imagery is meant to elicit a feeling of positivity in the context of a daunting task.