A survey on ontologies and ontology alignment approaches in healthcare

Abstract

In the era of Internet, high connectivity and openness introduced an opportunity for a new kind of approach to healthcare information system integration. Such an approach may utilize semantic-based technologies to represent and communicate knowledge between these systems. Resource Description Framework (RDF) in conjunction with Web Ontology Language (OWL) can be considered as a de facto standard when it comes to semantic web and linked data technologies, and represents a foundation for defining healthcare ontologies. The goal of this paper is to provide an overview and critical review of existing healthcare ontologies and approaches to healthcare IS integration, focusing on OWL/RDF based solutions. With this review we want to show that although a lot work is done in this area, no universal or omnipresent solution has surfaced to allow automatic or at least semi-automatic integration of healthcare ISs. As there is a large number of established and emerging ontologies covering this subject our review will not provide an exhaustive collection of all the references in the area, but present the most notable standards, ontologies, taxonomies, and integration approaches.