Domain Ontologies in Software Engineering: Use of Protégé with the EON Architecture

M. A. Musen

doi:10.1055/s-0038-1634543

Methods of Information in Medicine, Inhaltsverzeichnis

Methods Inf Med 1998; 37(04/05): 540-550
DOI: 10.1055/s-0038-1634543

Original Article

Schattauer GmbH

Domain Ontologies in Software Engineering: Use of Protégé with the EON Architecture

M. A. Musen

¹Stanford Medical Informatics, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, California, USA

› Institutsangaben

Abstract

Domain ontologies are formal descriptions of the classes of concepts and the relationships among those concepts that describe an application area. The Protege software-engineering methodology provides a clear division between domain ontologies and domain-independent problemsolvers that, when mapped to domain ontologies, can solve application tasks. The Protege approach allows domain ontologies to inform the total software-engineering process, and for ontologies to be shared among a variety of problem-solving components. We illustrate the approach by describing the development of EON, a set of middleware components that automate various aspects of protocol-directed therapy. Our work illustrates the organizing effect that domain ontologies can have on the software-development process. Ontologies, like all formal representations, have limitations in their ability to capture the semantics of application areas. Nevertheless, the capability of ontologies to encode clinical distinctions not usually captured by controlled medical terminologies provides significant advantages for developers and maintainers of clinical software applications.

Keywords

Ontology - Controlled Medical Terminology - Software Engineering - Decision-Support Systems - Protocol-Based Care

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Referenzen

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