Building of Medical Ontology for Management of Cystic Fibrosis Specific Lung Infection

Abstract

Ontology, a technique for conceptualization of a domain finds its highest application in the field of medicine, wherein the concentration is mainly on representation and re-organisation of its medical terminologies. Ontological framework can be constructed for Communicable, Non-communicable and Genetic diseases thereby representing its associated symptoms, tests and treatment along with their properties and relationships in a fashion that is readable by both human and machine. Though there are many genetic diseases viz. Cystic Fibrosis, Sickle cell anemia, Thalassaemia which would benefit hugely from Ontology, this paper mainly focuses on formulation of domain ontology for Cystic Fibrosis associated with lung pathology. The subclasses of lungs, its associated symptoms, tests and treatment are drawn from Cystic Fibrosis Foundation data to help build the ontological framework which is implemented online using the Protégé 4.1 and OWL DL syntaxes. Further, ontological framework of any other lung specific diseases could be integrated to the ontological framework built.