Towards industrial strength philosophy: how analytical ontology can help medical informatics

Abstract Medical research faces a problem of communication. Different communities of medical researchers use different and often incompatible terminologies in expressing the results of their work, and this yields problems of database integration when medical data needs to be entered into computers. Such problems were initially resolved in case by case fashion. Then, however, the idea arose of constructing one single benchmark taxonomy into which all of the various classification systems would need to be translated only once. By serving as a lingua franca for database integration, this taxonomy would ensure that all databases calibrated in its terms would be automatically intercompatible. Interestingly, information scientists called the proposed central classification system an 'ontology', and it was soon realised that work on its construction would have more than a few echoes of the metaphysics of old. The present paper describes an attempt to exploit the resources of philosophy in resolving problems which arise specifically in the field of medical terminology integration. It outlines a collaborative venture between the Institute for Formal Ontology and Medical Information Science in Leipzig and the Belgian software company Language & Computing, whereby an ontology based on sound philosophical principles will be tested in the context of powerful software tools for the processing of medical text.