Ontology for Healthcare Systems Simulation (O4HS)

Guest Speaker

Dr. Ignace Djitog

Abstract:
Ontology is a vocabulary of terms and specification of their meaning including definitions and indications of how concepts are interrelated while collectively imposing a structure on a domain by constraining the possible interpretations of terms [Durak et al. 2011]. Shared vocabularies facilitate good communication between leading domain experts. We use ontology to structurally define knowledge within a given domain. Many fields have developed ontologies to address modeling challenges such as model reuse, composability and interoperability. However, the application of ontology to Modelling and Simulation (M&S) is still in its infancy and a limited number of investigations have been carried out within the research community [Grolinger et al. 2012]. We present an ontology for Healthcare Systems(HS) Simulation (O4HS) heavily shaped by findings from the literature these last decades. O4HS ontology scope is wide and captures various concepts in HS in a reusable and interoperable manner. O4HS ontology is a holistic representation of HS based on agreed-upon definitions of common concepts used in healthcare simulation domain. The SES/MB framework is used to formally express it while its implementation is achieved using the standard Protégé software supported by the Web Ontology Language (OWL). O4HS ontology defines the domain of healthcare simulation in terms of classes/concepts, properties/relationships and instances/individuals, and serves to document and formalize knowledge. The main benefits of using O4HS ontology include common representation of healthcare models from different simulation platforms, querying simulation models, and browsing. While this work focuses on ontology-based representation of healthcare simulation models it describes a methodology that can be applied to various simulation domains. 

Date: February 19, 2020

Time: 1400-1500

Venue: Arts and Science Building, room 113