Assessment of the GALEN methodology on holistic classifications for professions allied to medicine

In the field of health care terminology it has proven to be difficult, but not impossible, to build a for-mat Reference Model (knowledge-model) for medical terminology. The intuition is that it is even more difficult to build such a reference model for the so called 'holistic' classification schemes as used by Nursing and Allied Health Care Professionals. There is a growing perceived need for formal reference models for specific professional groups. These reference models are used in many different ways, such as for building, maintaining and manipulating classification schemes. This paper focuses on the usability of the GALEN methodology for the formalisation of the Dutch Classification of Pain (NCP) as an example of such a 'holistic classification'. The first results of this exploration show that the GALEN methodology is very useful for analysing and understanding a' holistic classification', A high number of necessary concepts from the NCP already exist within the OpenGalen Common Reference Model-2 (OCRM2). A substantial number of concepts from the NCP do not yet exist in the OCRM2 or are underspecified. Additional modelling of the OCRM2 has to be performed, to enrich the expressivity of the model.