Susanne Hanser

Knowledge environments representing molecular entities for the virtual physiological human.

In essence, the virtual physiological human (VPH) is a multiscale representation of human physiology spanning from the molecular level via cellular processes and multicellular organization of tissues to complex organ function. The different scales of the VPH deal with different entities, relationships and processes, and in consequence the models used to describe and simulate biological functions vary significantly. Here, we describe methods and strategies to generate knowledge environments representing molecular entities that can be used for modelling the molecular scale of the VPH. Our strategy to generate knowledge environments representing molecular entities is based on the combination of information extraction from scientific text and the integration of information from biomolecular databases. We introduce @neuLink, a first prototype of an automatically generated, disease-specific knowledge environment combining biomolecular, chemical, genetic and medical information. Finally, we provide a perspective for the future implementation and use of knowledge environments representing molecular entities for the VPH.

@neurIST: Infrastructure for Advanced Disease Management Through Integration of Heterogeneous Data, Computing, and Complex Processing Services

The increasing volume of data describing human disease processes and the growing complexity of understanding, managing, and sharing such data presents a huge challenge for clinicians and medical researchers. This paper presents the @neurIST system, which provides an infrastructure for biomedical research while aiding clinical care, by bringing together heterogeneous data and complex processing and computing services. Although @neurIST targets the investigation and treatment of cerebral aneurysms, the systems architecture is generic enough that it could be adapted to the treatment of other diseases. Innovations in @neurIST include confining the patient data pertaining to aneurysms inside a single environment that offers clinicians the tools to analyze and interpret patient data and make use of knowledge-based guidance in planning their treatment. Medical researchers gain access to a critical mass of aneurysm related data due to the systems ability to federate distributed information sources. A semantically mediated grid infrastructure ensures that both clinicians and researchers are able to seamlessly access and work on data that is distributed across multiple sites in a secure way in addition to providing computing resources on demand for performing computationally intensive simulations for treatment planning and research.

Health Care Procedures

BACKGROUND ICD is used for coding medical diagnoses across the world, but there is no globally accepted coding system for health care procedures. The need for the introduction of a common international medical procedure classification has been addressed by the Australian NCCH, which proposed the International Classification of Health Interventions (ICHI) as the basis of an international procedure classification. In parallel, the French multiaxial Classification Commune des Actes Médicaux (CCAM) has been established. OBJECTIVES The aim is to compare ICHI to the CCAM architecture and to assess their appropriateness for supporting international comparability of procedure data and give a recommendation for the further development of international procedure classifications. METHODS The architecture of both ICHI and CCAM was thoroughly analyzed. ICHI classes were mapped to the classes of the multiaxial CCAM basic coding tables. This was done manually by domain experts, which analyzed the exact wording of each ICHI title. The result was assessed in terms of representability and granularity. RESULTS 78.4% of ICHI classes could be mapped directly to CCAM. The anatomical site could be represented in 99.3%. Numerous ICHI classes combined anatomical sites requiring more than one CCAM code. Problems arouse due to imprecise ICHI descriptions. CONCLUSIONS CCAM appeared as the more elaborate and mature system whereas ICHI had some drawback regarding ambiguity and varying granularity. It is recommended to improve the structure of ICHI by the beneficial aspects of the CCAM and to avoid semantic ambiguities by applying ontological principles and logic-based representation languages.