Development of an Ontology-based Health Information System using Integrated Ontology Management Framework

This paper presents an ontology-based health information system supporting exploration of semantically linked health knowledge. The system was built based on an integrated framework focusing on four major aspects in ontology management: ontology creation, interpretation, manipulation and distribution. Ontology was created using mind-mapping and Web-based ontology editing tools which allowed rapid creation and extension of health concepts. Browsing and searching utilized description logic-based inference for comprehensive and intelligent retrieval. Sharing ontology data was allowed in the standard ontology format in permitting knowledge reuse. The prototype system exemplified ontology management in domain-specific information system conforming to the Semantic Web framework.