A logical foundation for representation of clinical data.
OBJECTIVE
A general framework for representation of clinical data that provides a declarative semantics of terms and that allows developers to define explicitly the relationships among both terms and combinations of terms.


METHODS
Use of conceptual graphs as a standard representation of logic and of an existing standardized vocabulary, the Systematized Nomenclature of Medicine (SNOMED International), for lexical elements. Concepts such as time, anatomy, and uncertainty must be modeled explicitly in a way that allows relation of these foundational concepts to surface-level clinical descriptions in a uniform manner.


RESULTS
The proposed framework was used to model a simple radiology report, which included temporal references.


CONCLUSIONS
Formal logic provides a framework for formalizing the representation of medical concepts. Actual implementations will be required to evaluate the practicality of this approach.
Campbell
K E
KE
Section on Medical Informatics, Stanford University School of Medicine, CA 94305-5479, USA.
Das
A K
AK
Musen
M A
MA
D003198:Computer Simulation; D007256:Information Systems; D008128:Logic; D011871:Radiology; D012106:Research; D012984:Software; D013358:Subject Headings; D009626:Terminology as Topic