#acl All:read DanieleMerico:write,delete,revert
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#language en

= Background for a Clinical Phenotype Ontology =

These notes are preparatory for the [http://www.bioontology.org/wiki/index.php/DallasWorkshop Dallas Workshop]:
"Signs, Symptoms and Findings: First Steps Toward an Ontology of Clinical Phenotypes" [[BR]]
I will also attempt at adopting, at the same time, a more realist or more epistemological perspective.

== Diagnostic Evidences, Physiological Phenomena, Pathological Patient Classes ==
The meta-model of the NEUROWEB Reference Ontology can be generalized. It relies on this analytical deconstruction of the general workflow in medical diagnosis:
 1. collect '''diagnostic evidences''', which are stored in the medical record in the form of clinical indicators
 ~- note: the term ''diagnostic evidence'' puts the accent on the inference of a certain phenomenon from certain observations, and according to a varying mix of general theory and expert, thus is more related to the context (diagnostic process); the term ''clinical indicator'' puts the accent on a storable item of information -~
 1. infer the occurrence '''(Patho)Physiological Phenomena
 1. assign the patient to a formal '''Pathological Class''',