Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

An Ontology for PACS Integration

  • Published:
Journal of Digital Imaging Aims and scope Submit manuscript

An ontology describes a set of classes and the relationships among them. We explored the use of an ontology to integrate picture archiving and communication systems (PACS) with other information systems in the clinical enterprise. We created an ontological model of thoracic radiology that contained knowledge of anatomy, imaging procedures, and performed procedure steps. We explored the use of the model in two use cases: (1) to determine examination completeness and (2) to identify reference (comparison) images obtained in the same imaging projection. The model incorporated a total of 138 classes, including radiology orderables, procedures, procedure steps, imaging modalities, patient positions, and imaging planes. Radiological knowledge was encoded as relationships among these classes. The ontology successfully met the information requirements of the two use-case scenarios. Ontologies can represent radiological and clinical knowledge to integrate PACS with the clinical enterprise and to support the radiology interpretation process.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig 1
Fig 2
Fig 3
Fig 4

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Gruber TR. What is an ontology? http://www-ksl.stanford.edu/kst/what-is-an-ontology.html. Accessed 18 March 2006.

  2. TR Gruber (1995) ArticleTitleToward principles for the design of ontologies used for knowledge sharing Int J Hum-Comput Stud 43 907–928 Occurrence Handle10.1006/ijhc.1995.1081

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. B Smith (2003) Ontology L Floridi (Eds) Blackwell Guide to the Philosophy of Computing and Information Blackwell Oxford 155–166

    Google Scholar 

  4. KP Andriole RL Morin RL Arenson et al. (2004) ArticleTitleAddressing the coming radiology crisis—the Society for Computer Applications in Radiology Transforming the Radiological Interpretation Process (TRIP) initiative J Digit Imaging 17 235–243 Occurrence Handle10.1007/s10278-004-1027-1 Occurrence Handle15692865

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  5. CE Kahn SuffixJr (1998) ArticleTitleAn Internet-based ontology editor for radiology appropriateness criteria Comput Methods Programs Biomed 56 31–36 Occurrence Handle10.1016/S0169-2607(98)00012-1 Occurrence Handle9617525

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  6. M Musen (1992) ArticleTitleDimensions of knowledge sharing and reuse Comput Biomed Res 25 437–467 Occurrence Handle10.1016/0010-4809(92)90003-S

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. MA Musen JH Gennari H Eriksson SW Tu AR Puerta (1995) ArticleTitlePROTEGE-II: computer support for development of intelligent systems from libraries of components Medinfo 8 IssueIDPt 1 766–770 Occurrence Handle8591322

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  8. Web Ontology Language (OWL). World Wide Web Consortium. http://www.w3.org/TR/owl-guide/. Accessed 13 July 2005.

  9. PW Ballinger ED Frank V Merrill (2003) Merrill’s Atlas of Radiographic Positions and Radiologic Procedures Mosby St. Louis, MO

    Google Scholar 

  10. DL Rubin Y Bashir D Grossman P Dev MA Musen (2005) ArticleTitleUsing an ontology of human anatomy to inform reasoning with geometric models Stud Health Technol Inform 111 429–435 Occurrence Handle15718773

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  11. Rubin DL, Dameron O, Musen MA (2005) Use of description logic classification to reason about consequences of penetrating injuries. Proc AMIA Symp: 649–653

    Google Scholar 

  12. Rubin DL, Hewett M, Oliver DE, Klein TE, Altman RB (2002) Automating data acquisition into ontologies from pharmacogenetics relational data sources using declarative object definitions and XML. Pac Symp Biocomput: 88–99

    Google Scholar 

  13. CL Sistrom CP Langlotz (2005) ArticleTitleA framework for improving radiology reporting J Am Coll Radiol 2 159–167 Occurrence Handle10.1016/j.jacr.2004.06.015

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. M Henderson FM Behlen C Parisot EL Siegel DS Channin (2001) ArticleTitleIntegrating the healthcare enterprise: a primer. Part 4. The role of existing standards in IHE Radiographics 21 1597–1603 Occurrence Handle1:STN:280:DC%2BD3MnltlCmuw%3D%3D Occurrence Handle11706228

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  15. AE Flanders JA Carrino (2003) ArticleTitleUnderstanding DICOM and IHE Semin Roentgenol 38 270–281 Occurrence Handle10.1016/S0037-198X(03)00044-0 Occurrence Handle14513730

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  16. Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise. American College of Cardiology, Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society, Radiological Society of North America. http://www.ihe.net/. Accessed 13 July 2005.

  17. RadLex: A Lexicon for Uniform Indexing and Retrieval of Radiology Information Resources. Radiological Society of North America. http://www.rsna.org/Radlex/. Accessed 20 January 2006.

  18. Rubin DL: Improving RadLex using terminological analysis with ontology models. In: Radiological Society of North America. Chicago, IL, 2005.

  19. MA Harris J Clark A Ireland et al. (2004) ArticleTitleThe Gene Ontology (GO) database and informatics resource Nucleic Acids Res 32 D258–D261 Occurrence Handle10.1093/nar/gkh066 Occurrence Handle1:STN:280:DC%2BD3srpvFyhtw%3D%3D Occurrence Handle14681407

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  20. J Sprague D Clements T Conlin et al. (2003) ArticleTitleThe Zebrafish Information Network (ZFIN): the zebrafish model organism database Nucleic Acids Res 31 241–243 Occurrence Handle10.1093/nar/gkg027 Occurrence Handle1:CAS:528:DC%2BD3sXhvFSnu7s%3D Occurrence Handle12519991

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  21. CA Ball G Sherlock H Parkinson et al. (2002) ArticleTitleStandards for microarray data Science 298 539 Occurrence Handle10.1126/science.298.5593.539b Occurrence Handle1:CAS:528:DC%2BD38XotVWltb0%3D Occurrence Handle12387284

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  22. I Sim B Olasov S Carini (2004) ArticleTitleAn ontology of randomized controlled trials for evidence-based practice: content specification and evaluation using the competency decomposition method J Biomed Inform 37 108–119 Occurrence Handle10.1016/j.jbi.2004.03.001 Occurrence Handle15120657

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  23. WD Bidgood SuffixJr. SC Horii FW Prior DE Syckle ParticleVan (1997) ArticleTitleUnderstanding and using DICOM, the medical image communication standard J Am Med Inform Assoc 4 199–212 Occurrence Handle9147339

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  24. National Electronic Manufacturers Association. Digital Imaging and Communication in Medicine (DICOM). http://dicom.nema.org/. Accessed 13 July 2005.

  25. Rosse C, Shapiro LG, Brinkley JF (1998) The digital anatomist foundational model: principles for defining and structuring its concept domain. Proc AMIA Symp: 820–824.

    Google Scholar 

  26. C Rosse JL Mejino SuffixJr (2003) ArticleTitleA reference ontology for biomedical informatics: the foundational model of anatomy J Biomed Inform 36 478–500 Occurrence Handle10.1016/j.jbi.2003.11.007 Occurrence Handle14759820

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  27. Foundational Model of Anatomy. Structural Informatics Group, University of Washington. http://sig.biostr.washington.edu/projects/fm/. Accessed 16 January 2006.

  28. EL Siegel DS Channin (2001) ArticleTitleIntegrating the Healthcare Enterprise: a primer. Part 1. Introduction Radiographics 21 1339–1341 Occurrence Handle1:STN:280:DC%2BD3MrgsVWruw%3D%3D Occurrence Handle11553841

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  29. American College of Radiology ACR Appropriateness Criteria 2000. Radiology 215:1–1511, 2000

    Google Scholar 

  30. CL Sistrom JC Honeyman (2002) ArticleTitleRelational data model for the American College of Radiology Appropriateness Criteria J Digit Imaging 15 216–225 Occurrence Handle10.1007/s10278-002-0018-3 Occurrence Handle12415465

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  31. Appropriateness Criteria for Imaging and Treatment Decisions. American College of Radiology. http://www.acr.org/

  32. American Medical Association (1997) Physicians’ Current Procedural Terminology: CPT. Chicago: American Medical Association

  33. HL7. Health Level Seven. http://www.hl7.org/. Accessed 13 July 2005.

  34. Health Care Financing Administration (1989) The International Classification of Diseases, 9th revision, Clinical Modification: ICD-9-CM, U.S. Washington, DC: Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service

  35. HJ Lowe GO Barnett (1994) ArticleTitleUnderstanding and using the medical subject headings (MeSH) vocabulary to perform literature searches JAMA 271 1103–1108 Occurrence Handle10.1001/jama.271.14.1103 Occurrence Handle1:STN:280:ByuB3c3jvVE%3D Occurrence Handle8151853

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  36. Medical Subject Headings. National Library of Medicine. http://www.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/. Accessed 14 July 2005.

  37. Coté RA, Rothwell DJ, Beckette R, Palotay J, (Eds.) SNOMED International: The Systematized Nomenclature of Human and Veterinary Medicine. Northfield, IL: College of American Pathologists, 1993.

  38. SNOMED International. SNOMED CT. College of American Pathologists. http://www.snomed.org/snomedct/. Accessed 14 July 2005.

  39. DAB Lindberg BL Humphreys AT McCray (1993) ArticleTitleThe Unified Medical Language System Methods Inf Med 32 281–291 Occurrence Handle1:STN:280:ByuD3Mfnslw%3D Occurrence Handle8412823

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  40. AT McCray SJ Nelson (1995) ArticleTitleThe representation of meaning in the UMLS Methods Inf Med 34 193–201 Occurrence Handle1:STN:280:ByiB38jos1M%3D Occurrence Handle9082131

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Informatics, Department of Radiology, Medical College of Wisconsin, 9200 W. Wisconsin Ave., Milwaukee, WI, 53226, USA

    Charles E. Kahn Jr. M.D., M.S.

  2. Department of Radiology, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, IL, USA

    David S. Channin M.D.

  3. Stanford Medical Informatics and the Department of Radiology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA

    Daniel L. Rubin M.D., M.S.

Authors
  1. Charles E. Kahn Jr. M.D., M.S.
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. David S. Channin M.D.
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Daniel L. Rubin M.D., M.S.
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Charles E. Kahn Jr. M.D., M.S..

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Kahn, C.E., Channin, D.S. & Rubin, D.L. An Ontology for PACS Integration. J Digit Imaging 19, 316–327 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10278-006-0627-3

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10278-006-0627-3

Key Words

Search

Navigation