On domain ontology for decision support in the treatment of gait-related diseases

Abstract

In recent years, ontology has become the de facto standard for knowledge representation on the semantic web. The need to design and develop suitable ontologies that can support the operations and functionality of different types of intelligent systems is compelling. This paper presents the notion of decision support for healthcare practitioners in the treatment of gaitrelated diseases by using a domain ontology. The objective of the domain ontology is to create a knowledgebase artefact that can be leveraged for decision-making by healthcare workers during the prognosis, diagnosis and treatment of diseases that are associated with human gait impairment and gait abnormality. Gait impairment generally affects a patient’s mobility and ability to walk normally. The impact of gait-related diseases can vary from old age to more severe neurological and physical disorders, which needs to be thoroughly examined and investigated for accurate diagnosis and prognosis. This paper discusses how a domain ontology, that can facilitate decision support to diagnose and treat gait-related diseases, can be developed. At completion, the ontology would be able to support intelligent operations such as semantic processing of data, intelligent reasoning, information search and retrieval, and intelligent recommendations that provide valuable support to healthcare practitioners in decision making when dealing with gait-related diseases.