title: Querying temporal clinical databases with different time granularities: the GCH-OSQL language.
abstract: There is a need for managing temporal clinical information given at different levels of granularity. Different time granularities are also needed in querying clinical databases. In this paper, we describe GCH-OSQL (Granular Clinical History--Object Structured Query Language), an object-oriented temporally-oriented extension of SQL. GCH-OSQL is based on an object-oriented temporal data model. It allows storage of clinical information at different and mixed granularities. GCH-OSQL deals with the valid time of clinical information. GCH-OSQL offers also a graphical user-interface. It guides different end users, from expert to naive, to formulate expressive and correct queries.
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Bioingegneria del Politecnico di Milano.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Combi
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Pinciroli
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Cavallaro
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Cucchi
mesh_terms: D003196:Computer Graphics; D006751:Hospital Information Systems; D016347:Medical Records Systems, Computerized; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D011381:Programming Languages; D013995:Time; D013997:Time Factors; D014584:User-Computer Interface