Adapting Clinical Ontologies in Real-World Environments

Holger Stenzhorn (University Medical Center Freiburg, Germany)

Stefan Schulz (University Medical Center Freiburg, Germany)

Martin Boeker (University Medical Center Freiburg, Germany)

Barry Smith (University at Buffalo, USA)

Abstract: The desideratum of semantic interoperability has been intensively discussed in medical informatics circles in recent years. Originally, experts assumed that this issue could be sufficiently addressed by insisting simply on the application of shared clinical terminologies or clinical information models. However, the use of the term 'ontology’ has been steadily increasing more recently. We discuss criteria for distinguishing clinical ontologies from clinical terminologies and information models. Then, we briefly present the role clinical ontologies play in two multicentric research projects. Finally, we discuss the interactions between these different kinds of knowledge representation artifacts and the stakeholders involved in developing interoperational real-world clinical applications. We provide ontology engineering examples from two EU-funded projects.

Keywords: clinical ontologies, formal ontologies, knowledge representation

Categories: I.2.4, J.3