Data visualisation tools—a perspective from the pharmaceutical industry

This article is based on some general overviews gained from my own and AstraZeneca colleagues’ experiences of data visualisation tools and techniques, as applied to chemical and patent information, with some suggestions on how commercially available tools might be improved. Examples of the tools to be discussed include the visualisation components of programs used to process search results, particularly for chemical information and patents data, as well as specific packages targeted as mining and analysis tools, and also reminders of some of the simpler, but still effective, options available to assist in identifying patterns and relationships in data, even without integration with the more sophisticated programs now available. Comments are included on development suggestions and possible reasons for limited take up of these tools are offered.