An Ontology-based Framework for Development of Clinical Reminder System to Support Chronic Disease Healthcare

Improving quality of healthcare for people with chronic conditions requires informed and knowledgeable healthcare providers and patients. Decision support and clinical information system are two of the main components to support improving chronic care. In this paper, we describe an ontologybased information and knowledge management framework that is important for chronic disease care management. Ontologybased knowledge acquisition and modeling based on knowledge engineering approach provides an effective mechanism in capturing expert opinion in form of clinical practice guidelines. The framework focuses on building of healthcare ontology and clinical reminder system that link clinical guideline knowledge with patient registries to support evidenced-based healthcare. We discuss approaches in integrating clinical reminder services to existing healthcare provider environment by focusing on augmenting decision making and improving quality of patient care services.