ECOR European Centre for Ontological Research Ontology for indexing electronic patient records. There is only one right way: Referent Tracking ! STIC-Santé seminar, Paris, Dec 8, 2005 Dr. W. Ceusters European Centre for Ontological Research Saarland University, Saarbrücken - Germany
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ECO R European Centre for Ontological Research Ontology for indexing electronic patient records. There is only one right way: Referent Tracking ! STIC-Santé.
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ECOREuropean Centre forOntological Research
Ontology for indexing electronic patient records.
There is only one right way:Referent Tracking !
STIC-Santé seminar, Paris, Dec 8, 2005
Dr. W. CeustersEuropean Centre for Ontological Research
Saarland University, Saarbrücken - Germany
ECOREuropean Centre forOntological Research
Electronic Health Record
• ISO/TS 18308:2003– Electronic Health Record (EHR):
• A repository of information regarding the health of a subject of care, in computer processable form.
– EHR system:• the set of components that form the mechanism by which
electronic health records are created, used, stored, and retrieved. It includes people, data, rules and procedures, processing and storage devices, and communication and support facilities.
• More common meaning of EHR system: – only the “software being executed”
ECOREuropean Centre forOntological Research
The Medical Informatics dogmaTo structure or NOT to be
• Fact: computers can only deal with a structured representation of reality:– structured data:
• relational databases, spread sheets
– structured information:• XML simulates context
– structured knowledge:• rule-based knowledge systems
• Conclusion: a need for structured data entry
(???)
ECOREuropean Centre forOntological Research Structured EHR data entry
• Current technical solutions:– Data entry forms
• provide the structure• various paradigms:
– Rigid, pre-fixed– Adaptable to user-preferences, but fixed when used– Dynamically adapting to entered data in context
– Terminologies, coding and classification systems: • Provide the language to be used;• Are claimed
– To allow exchange of information preserving meaning– To be a good basis for record indexing to allow subsequent
processing for statistics and epidemiology
ECOREuropean Centre forOntological Research‘Traditional’ semantic indexing
• Statement:– ‘ Joe Smith has a fracture of the left tibia ’
• Becomes indexed as :
– #12 M-2xg41 A-2t68
– M-2xg41 code in SnowMeat with terms:– fracture, fractures, fracture NOS, broken, ...
– A-2t68 ibidem associated with:– left tibia, left tibia NEC, ...
At least 2 major drawbackswith traditional semantic indexing
1. Bad organisation and structure of ‘traditional’ terminologies and concept systems
2. Codes from such systems do not capture ‘what they are about’, ‘what was on the side of the patient’.
ECOREuropean Centre forOntological Research
Problems with terminologies (1)
Lack of face value
Agrammatical constructions
Shift in ontological category (or ambiguous meaning)
ECOREuropean Centre forOntological Research
Problems with terminologies (2)
‘ventricle’ used in 2 different meanings
ECOREuropean Centre forOntological Research
Problems with terminologies (3)
• Mixing of differentiae• Ontological nonsense
ECOREuropean Centre forOntological Research
Problems with terminologies (4)
Incomplete classification
ECOREuropean Centre forOntological Research
5572 04/07/1990 26442006 closed fracture of shaft of femur
5572 04/07/1990 81134009 Fracture, closed, spiral
5572 12/07/1990 26442006 closed fracture of shaft of femur
5572 12/07/1990 9001224 Accident in public building (supermarket)
5572 04/07/1990 79001 Essential hypertension
0939 24/12/1991 255174002 benign polyp of biliary tract
2309 21/03/1992 26442006 closed fracture of shaft of femur
2309 21/03/1992 9001224 Accident in public building (supermarket)
47804 03/04/1993 58298795 Other lesion on other specified region
5572 17/05/1993 79001 Essential hypertension
298 22/08/1993 2909872 Closed fracture of radial head
298 22/08/1993 9001224 Accident in public building (supermarket)
5572 01/04/1997 26442006 closed fracture of shaft of femur
5572 01/04/1997 79001 Essential hypertension
PtID Date ObsCode Narrative
0939 20/12/1998 255087006 malignant polyp of biliary tract
An index through which the ‘whats’ are lost
*
*
*
* cause, not disorder
How many disorders have patients 5572, 2309 and 298 each had thus far in their lifetime ?
How many numerically different disorders are listed here ?
How many different types of disorders are listed here ?
ECOREuropean Centre forOntological Research Would it be easier if you
could see the code labels ?
5572 04/07/1990 26442006 closed fracture of shaft of femur
5572 04/07/1990 81134009 Fracture, closed, spiral
5572 12/07/1990 26442006 closed fracture of shaft of femur
5572 12/07/1990 9001224 Accident in public building (supermarket)
5572 04/07/1990 79001 Essential hypertension
0939 24/12/1991 255174002 benign polyp of biliary tract
2309 21/03/1992 26442006 closed fracture of shaft of femur
2309 21/03/1992 9001224 Accident in public building (supermarket)
47804 03/04/1993 58298795 Other lesion on other specified region
5572 17/05/1993 79001 Essential hypertension
298 22/08/1993 2909872 Closed fracture of radial head
298 22/08/1993 9001224 Accident in public building (supermarket)
5572 01/04/1997 26442006 closed fracture of shaft of femur
5572 01/04/1997 79001 Essential hypertension
PtID Date ObsCode Narrative
0939 20/12/1998 255087006 malignant polyp of biliary tract
ECOREuropean Centre forOntological Research
5572 04/07/1990 26442006 closed fracture of shaft of femur
5572 04/07/1990 81134009 Fracture, closed, spiral
5572 12/07/1990 26442006 closed fracture of shaft of femur
5572 12/07/1990 9001224 Accident in public building (supermarket)
5572 04/07/1990 79001 Essential hypertension
0939 24/12/1991 255174002 benign polyp of biliary tract
2309 21/03/1992 26442006 closed fracture of shaft of femur
2309 21/03/1992 9001224 Accident in public building (supermarket)
47804 03/04/1993 58298795 Other lesion on other specified region
5572 17/05/1993 79001 Essential hypertension
298 22/08/1993 2909872 Closed fracture of radial head
298 22/08/1993 9001224 Accident in public building (supermarket)
5572 01/04/1997 26442006 closed fracture of shaft of femur
5572 01/04/1997 79001 Essential hypertension
PtID Date ObsCode Narrative
0939 20/12/1998 255087006 malignant polyp of biliary tract
Same patient, same hypertension code:Same (numerically identical) hypertension ?
Different patients, same fracture codes:Same (numerically identical) fracture ?
Same patient, different dates, same fracture
codes: same (numerically identical)
fracture ?
Same patient, same date,2 different fracture codes:
same (numerically identical) fracture ?
Same patient, different dates, Different codes. Same (numericallyidentical) polyp ?
A look at the problems ...Different patients. Same supermarket? Maybe the same (irrelevant ?) freezer section ?Or different supermarkets, but always in the freezer sections ?
ECOREuropean Centre forOntological Research Main problem areas
for current EHR indexing• Statements refer only very implicitly to the concrete
entities about which they give information.• Idiosyncracies of concept-based terminologies
– tell us only that some instance of the class the codes refer to, is refered to in the statement, but not what instance precisely.
– Are usually confused about classes and individuals.• “Country” and “Belgium”.
• Mixing up the act of observation and the thing observed.
• Mixing up statements and the entities these statements refer to.
ECOREuropean Centre forOntological Research
Consequences
• Very difficult to:– Count the number of (numerically) different diseases
• Bad statistics on incidence, prevalence, ...• Bad basis for health cost containment
– Relate (numerically same or different) causal factors to disorders:
– Dangerous public places (specific work floors, swimming pools),
– dogs with rabies,
– HIV contaminated blood from donors,
– food from unhygienic source, ...
• Hampers prevention
– ...
ECOREuropean Centre forOntological Research Proposed solution:
Referent Tracking
• Foundation:
Realist ontology
ECOREuropean Centre forOntological Research Ontology
• ‘Ontology’: the study of being as a science• ‘An ontology’ is a representation of some pre-
existing domain of reality which– (1) reflects the properties of the objects within its
domain in such a way that there obtains a systematic correlation between reality and the representation itself,
– (2) is intelligible to a domain expert– (3) is formalized in a way that allows it to support
automatic information processing
• ‘ontological’ (as adjective):– Within an ontology.– Derived by applying the methodology of ontology– ...
ECOREuropean Centre forOntological Research Proposed solution:
Referent Tracking
• Purpose:– explicit reference to the concrete individual entities
relevant to the accurate description of each patient’s condition, therapies, outcomes, ...
• Method:– Introduce an Instance Unique Identifier (IUI) for each
relevant individual (= particular, = instance).– Distinguish between
• IUI assignment: for instances that do exist• IUI reservation: for entities expected to come into existence in
the future
ECOREuropean Centre forOntological Research
Referent Tracking basedsemantic indexing
• Statement:– ‘Joe Smith has a fracture of the left tibia ’
Jane Smith is a 30 year old, Native American female who presents to the emergency room with the chief complaint of cough and chest pain.
ECOREuropean Centre forOntological Research
Step 1: identify the phrases referring to particulars
Jane Smith is a 50 year old ,
Native American female who presents
to the emergency room
with the chief complaint
of cough and chest pain.
ECOREuropean Centre forOntological Research
Jane Smith is a 50 year old ,
Native American female who presents
to the emergency room
with the chief complaint
of cough and chest pain.
Step 2: indentify to what particulars these phrases refer
Jane Smith Jane Smith’s age
Jane Smith’s race Jane SmithJane Smith’s gender Jane Smith’s showing up at ...
A specific emergency room of health facility XYZ
Jane Smith’s complaining primarily about ...
A temporal part of Jane Smith’slife marked by happenings of coughs
Jane Smith’s chest
A specific pain experienced by Jane Smith
ECOREuropean Centre forOntological Research
Compare with simple clinical coding in juxtaposition
Jane Smith is a 50 year old ,
Native American female who presents
to the emergency room
with the chief complaint
of cough and chest pain.
“Jane Smith” CS1-age
CS1-native-americanCS1-female-gender
CS1-emergency room
CS1-chief-complaint
CS1-coughing CS1-chest-pain
CS2-woman
CS2-painCS2-chest
ECOREuropean Centre forOntological Research
Compare with the output of the perfect semantic analyser we all would dream of
CS3-50 years oldHas-Age
CS3-woman
Is-A
CS3-native american
Is-ACS3-complaining
“Jane Smith”
Has-Sayer
CS3-chest pain
Has-Saying
CS3-coughing
Has-Saying
CS3-consultation
Has-happening-during
CS3-Em.RoomHas-Loc
Has-participant
Compare with the output of the NAIVE !!! semantic analyser we all would dream of
ECOREuropean Centre forOntological Research
What it (more or less) should be with traditional coding
CS3-complaining
CS3-chest pain
Has-Saying
CS3-coughing
Has-Saying
“chest-pain”
Has-’referent’
“coughing”Has-’referent’
ECOREuropean Centre forOntological Research
What it (more or less) should be with referent tracking
CS3-complaining
CS3-chest pain
Has-Saying
CS3-coughing
Has-Saying
“chest-pain”
Has-referent
“coughing”
Has-referent
J.S.’ complaining at t1
J.S.’ chest pain at t-1
J.S.’ coughing at t-1
Has-code
Has-code
Has-code
ECOREuropean Centre forOntological Research Step 3: are relevant and
necessary particulars missing ?• Referred to:
– Jane Smith– Jane Smith’s age– Jane Smith’s race– Jane Smith’s gender– Jane Smith’s showing up at ...– The specific emergency room in the health facility– Jane Smith’s primarily complaining ...– The temporal part ... coughs– Jane Smith’s chest– Jane Smith’s particular pain
• Missing:– The health facility– The healthcare worker she consulted– The particular coughs (under the condition she tells the objective truth)– The underlying disorder (under whatever state of affairs)
ECOREuropean Centre forOntological Research
Step 4: IUI assignment
• Assumptions: – the RTS contains already:
• IUI-1 Jane Smith
Coi = <IUIa, ta, CS3, IUI-1, woman, tr>
• IUI-1.1 Ri = <IUIa, ta, depends-on, BFO, {IUI-1.1, IUI-1}, tr>
Coi = <IUIa, ta, CS1, IUI-1.1, age, tr>
• IUI-1.2 Coi = <IUIa, ta, CS1, IUI-1.2, cherokee, tr>
Ri = <IUIa, ta, depends-on, BFO, {IUI-1.2, IUI-1}, tr>
• IUI-1.3 Coi = <IUIa, ta, CS3, IUI-1.3, chest pain, tr>
Ri = <IUIa, ta, is-located-in, BFO, {IUI-1.3, IUI-1}, tr>
– All dates in the statements are 2 years earlier than now
• What to do with:• Jane Smith• Jane Smith’s race (CS1: native American)• Jane Smith’s gender (CS1: female)• Jane Smith’s chest pain (CS3: chest pain)• Jane Smith’s age (50)
ECOREuropean Centre forOntological Research Conclusion
• Referent tracking can solve a number of problems in an elegant way, specifically those related to traditional semantic indexing.
• Existing (or emerging) technologies can be used for the implementation.
• Old technologies (cbs) can play an interesting role.
• The proof of the pudding is in the eating– Pilote is going to be set up