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:
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
infer the occurrence (Patho)Physiological Phenomena
assign the patient to a formal Pathological Class,