Semant c Web Standards and Ontolog es n the Med cal Sc ences and Healthcare
Copyright ?© 2007, Idea Group Inc. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission
of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited.
Information.Searching.and.Sharing
???Ontologies can enhance the functioning of the Web in many ways. They can be
used in a simple fashion to improve the accuracy of Web searches??? (Berners-Lee et
al., 2001). The difficulties and complexities of searching for medical information are
discussed by Pisnalli et al. (2004) in their research on medical polysemy. Because
polysemy (a word having more than one meaning) can be critical to finding correct
medical information, the application of ontologies can be of value in information
searching. For example, the ontology of the term inflammation can vary depending
on the context of its use. As Pisnalli et al. state, inflammation can include the size,
shape, evolution, severity, and source. When one searches for the term inflammation,
many results may be provided, but time is required to sort through the ???hits???
for relevance.
Pages:
815
816
817
818
819
820
821
822
823
824
825
826
827
828
829
830
831
832
833
834
835
836
837
838
839