Reuse and Semantic Interoperability

• Multiple working groups shouldn't redefine-basic concepts– Undermines semantic interoperability across domains and

systems– Varying quality of individual models– Limits downstream extensibility

• Ontology-based formalizations offer more rigor– Typically leverage work of broader community of interests– Designed for reuse and extensibility– Generally reflect more thorough, higher-quality modeling– Reuse of Upper and Mid-level ontologies improves semantic

alignment of Domain-Level ontologies and resulting implementations

Examples of Time Formalization

• HL-7*– Time taxonomy fragment– TimingEvent model

• WordNet– Time (Verb)– Time (Noun)

• SUMO– Process Examples

*See Patrick Cassidy notes: http://ontolog.cim3.net/forum/health-ont/2005-02/msg00011.html

HL-7 Timing Event ModelType Concept ID Mnemonic Description

L: (AC) 10708 AC Before meal (from lat.ante cibus)

L: (ACD) 10712 ACD Before lunch (from lat.ante cibus diurnus)

L: (ACM) 10711 ACM Before breakfast (from lat. Ante cibus matutinus)

L: (ACV) 10713 ACV Before dinner (from lat. Ante cibus vespertinus)

L: (HS) 10707 HS The hour of sleep (e.b., H18-22)

L: (IC) 10710 IC Between meals (from lat. Inter cibus)

L: (ICD) 10718 ICD Between lunch and dinner

L: (ICM) 10717 ICM Between breakfast and lunch

L: (ICV) 10719 ICV Between dinner and the hour or sleep

L: (PC) 10709 PC After meal (from lat. post cibus)

L: (PCD) 10715 PCD After lunch (from lat. post cibus diurnus)

L: (PCM) 10714 PCM After breakfast (from lat. post cibus matutinus)

L: (PCV) 10716 PCV After dinner (from lat. Post cibus vespertinus)

Time Representation in HL7

The following was selected from the HL-7 taxonomy:• DataTypeDataValue• DataTypeInterval

– DataTypeIntervalOfPhysicalQuantities – DataTypeIntervalOfPointsInTime

• DataTypeEventRelatedInterval• DataTypeGeneralTimingSpecification• DataTypePeriodicIntervalOfTime

• DataTypeQuantity– DataTypePhysicalQuantity

• DataTypeParametricProbabilityDistributionOfPhysicalQuantities

– DataTypePointInTime

WordNet “Time” (Verb)

1. S: (v) clock, time (measure the time or duration of an event or action or the person who performs an action in a certain period of time) "he clocked the runners"

2. S: (v) time (assign a time for an activity or event) "The candidate carefully timed his appearance at the disaster scene"

3. S: (v) time (set the speed, duration, or execution of) "we time the process to manufacture our cars very precisely"

4. S: (v) time (regulate or set the time of) "time the clock"

5. S: (v) time (adjust so that a force is applied and an action occurs at the desired time) "The good player times his swing so as to hit the ball squarely“

From http://wordnet.princeton.edu/

WordNet “Time” (Noun)1. S: (n) time, clip (an instance or single occasion for some event) "this time he succeeded"; "he

called four times"; "he could do ten at a clip"

2. S: (n) time (an indefinite period (usually marked by specific attributes or activities)) "he waited a long time"; "the time of year for planting"; "he was a great actor is his time"

3. S: (n) time (a period of time considered as a resource under your control and sufficient to accomplish something) "take time to smell the roses"; "I didn't have time to finish"; "it took more than half my time"

4. S: (n) time (a suitable moment) "it is time to go"

5. S: (n) time (the continuum of experience in which events pass from the future through the present to the past)

6. S: (n) clock time, time (the time as given by a clock) "do you know what time it is?"; "the time is 10 o'clock"

7. S: (n) fourth dimension, time (the fourth coordinate that is required (along with three spatial dimensions) to specify a physical event)

8. S: (n) time (a person's experience on a particular occasion) "he had a time holding back the tears"; "they had a good time together"

9. S: (n) meter, metre, time (rhythm as given by division into parts of equal duration)

10. S: (n) prison term, sentence, time (the period of time a prisoner is imprisoned) "he served a prison term of 15 months"; "his sentence was 5 to 10 years"; "he is doing time in the county jail"

Time Representation in SUMO

WordNet N1 maps to SUMO “Process”

• Appearance as argument number 1– documentation Process "Intuitively, the class of things that happen and

have temporal parts or stages. Examples include extended events like a football match or a race, actions like Pursuing and Reading, and biological processes. The formal definition is: anything that lasts for a time but is not an Object. Note that a Process may have participants 'inside' it which are Objects, such as the players in a football match. In a 4D ontology, a Process is something whose spatiotemporal extent is thought of as dividing into temporal stages roughly perpendicular to the time-axis.“

– subclass Process Physical

From http://sigma2.cim3.net:8080/sigma/Browse.jsp?term=Process&kb=SUMO

SUMO “Process” Examples

• Appearance as argument number 2 (1 of 5)– subclass DualObjectProcess Process

• dual object process is a subclass of process

• Appearance as argument number 3 (1 of 27)– domain agent 1 Process

• the number 1 argument of agent is an instance of process

SUMO “Process” Examples

• Antecedent (1 of 4)(=>

(and

(instance ?PROC Process)

(subProcess ?SUBPROC ?PROC))

(exists (?TIME)

(time ?SUBPROC ?TIME)))– if ?PROC is an instance of process and ?SUBPROC is a

subprocess of ?PROC, then there exists ?TIME so that ?SUBPROC exists during ?TIME

Questions to consider

• Ontolog group’s focus on interoperability needs

of NHIN & FHA architects, – How should ontologies enable the interoperability of

patient health records? – How should existing and prospective health domain

ontologies and taxonomies be aligned with upper ontologies to improve the accuracy of conceptual information transfer ?

– Especially among systems using different domain knowledge representations.