Managing Different Time Granularities of Clinical Information by an Interval-based Temporal Data Model

C. Combi; F. Pinciroli; G. Pozzi

doi:10.1055/s-0038-1634623

Methods of Information in Medicine, Table of Contents

Methods Inf Med 1995; 34(05): 458-474
DOI: 10.1055/s-0038-1634623

Original Article

Schattauer GmbH

Managing Different Time Granularities of Clinical Information by an Interval-based Temporal Data Model

C. Combi

¹Dipartimento di Bioingegneria del Politecnico di Milano, Italy

,

F. Pinciroli

¹Dipartimento di Bioingegneria del Politecnico di Milano, Italy

²Centro di Teoria dei Sistemi del CNR, Milano, Italy

,

G. Pozzi

³Dipartimento di Elettronica e Informazione, Politecnico di Milano, Italy

› Author Affiliations

Abstract

Abstract:

In the field of databases, time management at different levels of granularity has been an issue for several years, for instance when dealing with clinical information from different databases using different time units, dealing with natural language expressions, or when dealing with temporal uncertainty. A temporal data model is proposed to manage the temporal aspect of data, presented at various and mixed levels of granularity. The concept of temporal assertions shapes the entire temporal information. The model provides a temporal dimension to the data by using intervals that can be specified at different granularities. The model supports a three-valued logic, where True, False and Undefined are the truth values. The temporal data model allows to manage some degrees of uncertainty when establishing temporal relationships between intervals or between temporal assertions, expressed at different granularities. The logical connectives and quantifiers can manage each of the three truth-values.

We applied the temporal data model by implementing an object-oriented database system for managing follow-up clinical data from patients who underwent percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty.

Keywords:

Temporal Databases - Temporal Clinical Information - Time Granularity - Predicate Calculus - Temporal Logic - Natural Language

Full Text

References

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