Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
fields are involved (e.g. medicine, biology, chemistry), different facets can be consid-
ered (e.g. anatomy, pathology, clinics) and different goals can be set (e.g. simulation,
assisted surgery, assisted diagnosis, training). Moreover, some conceptualizations
are bound to be compliant with widely adopted standards, such as the ones used for
forensic categorization of pathologies.
In this section, we will survey knowledge representation and access efforts and
we will analyze them while paying special attention to what they represent (e.g.
bones, muscles, blood vessels, medical reports, lab exams), which perspective they
originate from (e.g. radiology, anatomy), their expressivity, and their association to
visual information. Moreover, we will discuss whether such initiatives are intended
to represent general information or patient-specific information, as they can refer
to a unique fixed prototype, to multiple prototypes, to parameterized models, or to
patient-specific data.
Some comments on the language used to represent knowledge will be also given.
Ontologies are the most complete approach to provide an expressive, structured and
shared vocabulary because of their intrinsic power of encoding structural complexity;
in fact, their use in the medical field started with a focus on the representation
and (re-)organization of medical terminologies, e.g. FMA (Foundation Model of
Anatomy), ICD (International Classification Diseases) and SNOMED (Systematized
Nomenclature of Medicine).
Following the advancement of semantic web technologies, the scenario of medical
ontologies is currently evolving: besides providing a common terminology, ontolo-
gies can also be used to provide connections among concepts, following the structural,
functional and topological connections that exist within the medical information. The
development of ontologies has therefore targeted also the support of computational
frameworks for clinical decision (e.g. OntoQuest [
14
]) or the study of the human
anatomy and the functional behavior of the organ in a more interactive way (e.g. My
Corporis Fabrica).
In the following, we provide a brief summary of some examples of ontologies
related to human anatomy that have been developed according to the aforementioned
evolution trend, starting from the ontologies describing only terminology up to more
structured ontologies.
13.3.1 Systematized Nomenclature of Medicine (SNOMED)
The Systematized Nomenclature of Medicine—Clinical Terms [
15
], SNOMED
CTR, was originally created by the College of American Pathologists (CAP) and is
now maintained and distributed by the International Health Terminology Standards
Development Organization (IHTSDO). SNOMED CTR aims to provide compre-
hensive coverage of the health care domain such as diseases, findings, procedures,
microorganisms and pharmaceuticals, and indeed is the most comprehensive clinical
terminology available.
