Data Integration in the Brazilian Public Health System for Tuberculosis: Use of the Semantic Web to Establish Interoperability (Preprint)

Abstract

<sec> <title>BACKGROUND</title> <p>Interoperability of health information systems is a challenge due to the heterogeneity of existing systems at both the technological and semantic levels of their data. The lack of existing data about interoperability disrupts intra-unit and inter-unit medical operations as well as creates challenges in conducting studies on existing data. The goal is to exchange data while providing the same meaning for data from different sources.</p> </sec> <sec> <title>OBJECTIVE</title> <p>To find ways to solve this challenge, this research paper proposes an interoperability solution for the tuberculosis treatment and follow-up scenario in Brazil using Semantic Web technology supported by an ontology.</p> </sec> <sec> <title>METHODS</title> <p>The entities of the ontology were allocated under the definitions of Basic Formal Ontology. Brazilian tuberculosis applications were tagged with entities from the resulting ontology.</p> </sec> <sec> <title>RESULTS</title> <p>An interoperability layer was developed to retrieve data with the same meaning and in a structured way enabling semantic and functional interoperability.</p> </sec> <sec> <title>CONCLUSIONS</title> <p>Health professionals could use the data gathered from several data sources to enhance the effectiveness of their actions and decisions, as shown in a practical use case to integrate tuberculosis data in the State of São Paulo.</p> </sec>