Development of a Medical Ontology Library: Analysis of the Clinical Terms in the Medical Records of a COPD Patient

Abstract

Objective: The medical records of a patient with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease(COPD) were analyzed to extract medical concepts and their relationships in order to construct a basic medical ontology. Methods: The medical records included the admission note, vital signs record, doctors’ order sheets, progress notes, emergency notes, discharge summary, surgical record, and anesthesia record. Results: A total of 396 concepts, 16 relationships, and 460 connections were created. Fourteen top-level concepts, such as body, sign, and procedure, were found. The most common relationship was ‘isA’ and the second was ‘isPartOf’’. All the relationships between the concepts were displayed using the graphic tool GraphViz. Conclusion: A pilot ontology on COPD was constructed through a medical record analysis. The asynchronous cooperation using a web interface for the ontology construction was helpful.