Visualising medical research with KCL

We’ve been visualising a research project with King’s College London and their Patient Advisory Group on Gestational Diabetes Mellitus (GDM). They've been working together to understand the impact of GDM on women’s mental health both during and after pregnancy.

GDM is a form of diabetes that is first recognised during pregnancy. It’s a growing issue and affects around 15% of pregnancies globally, so we worked closely with KCL to shine a light on how GDM has affected women’s pregnancies and mental health.

• GDM can increase the risk of poor health outcomes for both mum and baby.

• It can lead to babies being larger than average, increasing the likelihood of caesarean section
  

• The management can be both psychologically and physically demanding for women
  

• GDM typically resolves after birth. However, it can have long-term consequences for both mother and baby including an increased risk of type 2 diabetes in later life.

We met with our client at King’s College London to discuss the research and how we could create an impactful visual that would condense some complex research into an easily digestible image.

They had conducted research which involved a qualitative study (interviews) with women who had currently had or had GDM in the past. The research findings had been presented in a peer-reviewed paper and published in an academic journal, but they wanted to make sure the findings could be understood and accessed by all. We decided it would be ideal to set up a space to meet with the researchers and the Patient Advisory Group (7 women with experience of GDM) to visualise the work.

We used our facilitation skills to create an inclusive environment for the Patient Advisory Group, so the group felt at ease. We encouraged them to share their stories in a safe space. This was crucial to the project. During the workshop, Ellie was facilitating while Ruby was visualising and capturing the notes in Miro. We based the conversation around a draft of the visual we created from the research findings to show the experience of GDM for women during and after pregnancy.

This visual aid helped the women to see the different elements of the research in a clear way by signposting different themes and feelings. The women advised how each theme could be visualised and added elements that we nor the research team had thought of. Their input was essential. As the women told their stories and discussed their shared experiences, we were able to capture their words in images.

After the workshop, we refined the content with our client, Dr Madeleine Benton. We had all the elements needed to understand the impacts of GDM, and our visualiser Ruby worked her magic and created a stunning visual to highlight our findings.

A picture paints a thousand words’ has never been more apt when it comes to visualising medical research. We pride ourselves on turning complex language and findings into easily digestible content that can be shared with a wide audience and used as a valuable learning tool.

GDM is on the rise and it is crucial to shine a light on women’s experience and how we can support them.

The visual will be shared with the KCL media team, public groups that support women with GDM, research newsletters and on social media.