HealthCyberMap: a semantic visual browser of medical Internet resources based on clinical codes and the human body metaphor.
OBJECTIVE
HealthCyberMap (HCM-http://healthcybermap.semanticweb.org) is a web-based service for healthcare professionals and librarians, patients and the public in general that aims at mapping parts of the health information resources in cyberspace in novel ways to improve their retrieval and navigation.
HCM adopts a clinical metadata framework built upon a clinical coding ontology for the semantic indexing, classification and browsing of Internet health information resources. A resource metadata base holds information about selected resources. HCM then uses GIS (Geographic Information Systems) spatialization methods to generate interactive navigational cybermaps from the metadata base. These visual cybermaps are based on familiar medical metaphors.


CONCLUSIONS
HCM cybermaps can be considered as semantically spatialized, ontology-based browsing views of the underlying resource metadata base. Using a clinical coding scheme as a metric for spatialization ('semantic distance') is unique to HCM and is very much suited for the semantic categorization and navigation of Internet health information resources. Clinical codes ensure reliable and unambiguous topical indexing of these resources. HCM also introduces a useful form of cyberspatial analysis for the detection of topical coverage gaps in the resource metadata base using choropleth (shaded) maps of human body systems.
Kamel Boulos
Maged N
MN
Centre for Measurement and Information in Medicine, School of Informatics, City University, London, UK. M.Nabih-Kamel-Boulos@city.ac.uk
Roudsari
Abdul V
AV
Carso N
Ewart R
ER
D000043:Abstracting and Indexing; D001271:Atlases as Topic; D040362:Geographic Information Systems; D018594:Human Body; D006801:Humans; D007255:Information Services / Q000145:classification*; D038801:International Classification of Diseases; D020407:Internet; D008377:Maps as Topic; D006113:United Kingdom; D014584:User-Computer Interface