Use of ontology technology for standardization of medical records and dealing with associated privacy issues

Abstract

Our goal is to move towards efficient and secure use of medical records for the purpose of correct patient identification, diagnosis, appointments scheduling and the like in everyday life as well as in emergency situations. We place emphasis on standardized use of medical records within various regions, countries and even continents. Ontologies can be used for this purpose. Instantiation of the Generic Medical Record Ontology concepts result in Specific Medical Record Ontologies that act as personalized medical records. Ontology files are machine readable and are suitable to be used within the information system. Medical record databases contain personal medical records. Through use of ontologies for standardization of medical records from these different databases, one big virtual database is created that contains medical records of all people. Another advantage of use of ontologies within the system is that hierarchical structure of ontologies will result in better control over access and use of personalized medical information addressing privacy issues associated with this. The significance of this research lies in use of ontology technology for the purpose of establishing worldwide standardization of medical records and dealing with associated privacy issues.