SMARTDRAW IN MEDICAL RESEARCH:

Visualizing Cancer Pathways with SmartDraw

The Symptoms
Visualizing complex phenomena for high-tech projects and processes is no easy task. Just ask Van Warren, Director of Warren Design Vision Productions. His projects include working with NASA, General Motors, and various Biotech firms. However, even rocket scientists need a little help sometimes.

"I needed a way to create process charts illustrating cancer pathways for a media project," said Warren. "I wanted a product that included an extensive library of existing symbols, a good user interface, and nice interaction semantics."

The project needed to illustrate the cause of breast cancer by showing how cells acquired mutations.

Warren had previously worked with Visio^®, MacDraw, AppleWorks, Dag, and other custom programs, but none met his specific requirements.

"I could have made some of these drawings in Visio^®, but the per-seat cost is just outrageous," he said. "If I give the drawing to someone else to modify and improve, I want them to be able to afford the software without taking out a second mortgage on their house."

The Prescription
Warren found SmartDraw on the Internet after a quick search, and decided to install the free trial. He was immediately impressed. "The product was intuitive and painless to learn," he said.

Warren found that SmartDraw helped him complete complex and detailed drawings quickly and easily. With thousands of symbols, images and templates, including numerous for the medical community, Warren saw SmartDraw as an excellent tool for any sort of medical diagram.

"SmartDraw is like a utility. After you use it for a little while, it kind of disappears, like a pencil in your hand," said Warren. "I could focus on my project instead of worrying about the software."

He was also impressed with SmartDraw's powerful styling features, allowing users to control attributes such as color, style, text, and much more.

"I really liked the ability to choose exactly the look I wanted," said Warren. "Style means a lot to me."

The Cure
Warren now uses SmartDraw to create all types of complex diagrams including medical illustrations, 2-dimensional layouts, and even system engineering and electronics diagrams.

"I use the program whenever I need a diagram," he said. "It's especially helpful at the beginning of major projects, to communicate 'the plan.'"

Warren is very happy with the results, and so are his clients.

"People say my work has a certain something extra, that they can't put into WORD^®s," he said. "I like that!"

And, according to Kunnas, SmartDraw doesn't occupy his computer resources like Visio.

"When I was running Visio on my computer, everything worked very slowly," he said. By creating professional drawings and diagrams quickly with SmartDraw, Warren saves both time and money. His biggest accomplishment to date is using SmartDraw to illustrate cancer pathways.

"Visualizing information means understanding, and understanding literally means life for those doing advanced research," said Warren. "Some wonderful new developments are just around the corner."