title: Using ontologies to improve semantic interoperability in health data.
abstract: The present-day health data ecosystem comprises a wide array of complex heterogeneous data sources. A wide range of clinical, health care, social and other clinically relevant information are stored in these data sources. These data exist either as structured data or as free-text. These data are generally individual person-based records, but social care data are generally case based and less formal data sources may be shared by groups. The structured data may be organised in a proprietary way or be coded using one-of-many coding, classification or terminologies that have often evolved in isolation and designed to meet the needs of the context that they have been developed. This has resulted in a wide range of semantic interoperability issues that make the integration of data held on these different systems changing. We present semantic interoperability challenges and describe a classification of these. We propose a four-step process and a toolkit for those wishing to work more ontologically, progressing from the identification and specification of concepts to validating a final ontology. The four steps are: (1) the identification and specification of data sources; (2) the conceptualisation of semantic meaning; (3) defining to what extent routine data can be used as a measure of the process or outcome of care required in a particular study or audit and (4) the formalisation and validation of the final ontology. The toolkit is an extension of a previous schema created to formalise the development of ontologies related to chronic disease management. The extensions are focused on facilitating rapid building of ontologies for time-critical research studies.
authors.affiliation: University of Surrey, Guildford, UK. h.s.liyanage@surrey.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Harshana
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Liyanage
authors.affiliation: University of Surrey, Guildford, UK.
authors.forename: Paul
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Krause
authors.affiliation: University of Surrey, Guildford, UK.
authors.forename: Simon
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: De Lusignan
mesh_terms: D064229:Biological Ontologies; D002908:Chronic Disease / Q000628:therapy; D059019:Clinical Coding; D003299:Cooperative Behavior; D057286:Electronic Health Records; D066275:Health Information Exchange; D006801:Humans; D033183:Interdisciplinary Communication; D012660:Semantics
keywords: data integration; electronic health records; interoperability; ontology; semantic