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A RuleML study on integrating geographical and health information

Abstract:

To facilitate health surveillance, flexible ways to represent, integrate, and deduce health information become increasingly important. In this paper, an ontology is used to support the semantic definition of spatial, temporal and thematic factors of health information. The ontology is realized as an interchangeable RuleML knowledge base, consisting of facts and rules. Rules are also used for integrating geographical and health information. The implemented eHealthGeo system uses the OO jDREW reasoning engine to deduce implicit information such as spatial relationships. The system combines this with spatial operations and supports health information roll-up and visualization. The eHealthGeo study demonstrates a RuleML approach to supporting semantic health information integration and management. © 2008 Springer Berlin Heidelberg.