Introduction

What is Microreact?

Microreact is software developed by the Centre for Genomic Pathogen Surveillance (CGPS) that allows you to upload, visualise and explore any combination of clustering (trees), geographic (map) and temporal (timeline) data. Other metadata variables are displayed in a table. You can specify colours and/or shapes to display on the map, tree and/or timeline. A permanent URL is produced for you to share your Microreact, or a .microreact file can be downloaded for sharing with collaborators.

Microreact (https://microreact.org/) is a web-based application for the provision of interactive data visualisations. It enables the rapid generation and linkage of trees, maps, networks, charts and timelines, enabling epidemiologists and key decision makers to react faster and with greater accuracy.

Microreact can be deployed securely on a local server, behind firewalls and adhering to local data governance. Users can make their Microreact projects findable on the network, or share them privately with another user by sharing a downloaded project or using secret links. Microreact projects for public consumption can be shared on the public Microreact site.

Notably, unlike other data visualisation platforms with pre-specified and fixed combinations of data, Microreact permits substantial customisation of data fields, maps, charts, colours, and layouts, and these views can be filtered and saved to facilitate shared understanding of complex public health data.

Specific needs can be addressed by further customisation of Microreact’s visual components, including tailored creation of many types of charts. The original data files can be downloaded by anyone who can view a project, enabling collaborators or the research community to further explore the data. Microreact can be updated automatically from various data sources, including the output of a Data-flo or Epicollect5 project.