A Hybrid Architecture for a Preoperative Decision Support System Using a Rule Engine and a Reasoner on a Clinical Ontology

Citation

Bouamrane M, Rector A & Hurrell M (2009) A Hybrid Architecture for a Preoperative Decision Support System Using a Rule Engine and a Reasoner on a Clinical Ontology. In: Pollares A & Swift T (eds.) Web Reasoning and Rule Systems. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 5837. Third International Conference, RR 2009, Chantilly, VA, 25.10.2009-26.10.2009. Berlin: Springer Berlin Heidelberg, pp. 242-253. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-05082-4_17

Abstract
We report on a preventive care software system for preoperative risk assessment of patient undergoing elective surgery. The system combines a rule engine and a reasoner which uses a decision support ontology developed with a logic based knowledge representation formalism. We specifically discuss our experience of using a representation of a patient’s medical history in OWL, combined with a reasoning tool to suggest appropriate preoperative tests based on an implementation of preoperative assessment guidelines. We illustrate the reasoning functionalities of the system with a number of practical examples.

Keywords
Preoperative Assessment; Computer-based Decision Support Systems (CDSS); Rule Engine; Reasoner; Clinical Ontology; Web Ontology Language OWL