Ontological modeling of interoperable abnormal states

Abstract

Exchanging huge volumes of data is a common concern in various fields. One issue has been the difficulty of cross-domain sharing of knowledge because of its highly heterogeneous nature. We constructed an ontological model of abnormal states from the generic to domain-specific level. We propose a unified form to describe an abnormal state as a "property", and then divide it into an "attribute" and a "value" in a qualitative form. This approach promotes interoperability and flexibility of quantitative raw data, qualitative information, and generic/ abstract knowledge. By developing an is-a hierarchal tree and combining causal chains of diseases, 17,000 abnormal states from 6000 diseases can be captured as generic causal relations and are reusable across 12 medical departments. © Springer-Verlag 2013.