Development of a Medical Ontology Library: Analysis of the Clinical Terms in the Medical Records of a COPD Patient

Lee, Kyoung Jin; Choi, Jieun; Hwang, Sung Chul; Ha, Byung Hyun; Park, Eui Jun; Lee, Jae Il; Kim, Myeng Ki; Park, Rae Woong

doi:2006.12.1.21

Healthc Inform Res > Volume 12(1); 2006 > Article

Original Article

Journal of Korean Society of Medical Informatics 2006;12(1):21-29.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.4258/jksmi.2006.12.1.21 Published online March 31, 2006.

Development of a Medical Ontology Library: Analysis of the Clinical Terms in the Medical Records of a COPD Patient

Kyoung Jin Lee, Jieun Choi, Sung Chul Hwang, Byung Hyun Ha, Eui Jun Park, Jae Il Lee, Myeng Ki Kim, Rae Woong Park

¹Department of Medical Informatics, School of Medicine, Ajou University, Suwon, Korea.
²Center for Healthcare Ontology Research and Development(CHORD), School of Medicine, Ajou University, Suwon, Korea.

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: The medical records of a patient with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease(COPD) were analyzed to extract medical concepts and their relationships in order to construct a basic medical ontology.

METHODS: The medical records included the admission note, vital signs record, doctors' order sheets, progress notes, emergency notes, discharge summary, surgical record, and anesthesia record.

RESULTS: A total of 396 concepts, 16 relationships, and 460 connections were created. Fourteen top-level concepts, such as body, sign, and procedure, were found. The most common relationship was 'isA' and the second was 'isPartOf'. All the relationships between the concepts were displayed using the graphic tool GraphViz.

CONCLUSION: A pilot ontology on COPD was constructed through a medical record analysis. The asynchronous cooperation using a web interface for the ontology construction was helpful.

Key Words: Clinical Terms, Expressive Pattern, Concept, Relation, COPD, Ontology