Medical Data Unification Using Ontology-Based Semantic Model Structural Analysis

In the paper we will present a cohesive view on medical data integration and migration mechanisms for providing and maintaining a medical system inter-operability. It is well known, that despite very well defined semantics, the medical domain utilizes many data formats, and various data records along with domain values (datatypes and enumerations). Therefore, in healthcare systems, the integration itself becomes an important and crucial issue. To solve such problems, a variety of ETL tools can be used. Our method and tools provide several features, which extend the capabilities of such mechanisms by delivering semantic analysis of data. Utilized ontology-based features of reasoning mechanisms, can be used for identity and consistency validation. The method delivers also analytical approach based on ontology-structural analysis applied for ontology alignment process. This technique produces recommendations for a knowledge engineer by identifying ontology elements correspondences.