Towards improving usage and management of supplies in healthcare: An ontology-based solution for sharing knowledge

The goal of this work is to contribute to an improvement in the management and usage of medical items in hospitals by developing an ontology-driven solution that organizes and describes clearly related knowledge. Experts in the purchasing and management of hospital supplies (administrative and clinical) were invited to participate at different stages of the ontology-based system development. As a result of the first stage, the HealthCatalog ontology was developed. This ontology models generic items included in a health catalog and their management. Secondly, a further refinement of the ontology was conducted by specifically studying the case of gloves. Twenty-seven references of different glove types were modeled and included in the ontology during the stage two. A prototype was then developed as a proof of concept and for the evaluation of the ontology. Finally, a usability evaluation was planned to improve the ontology and obtain feedback from experts after testing the system. Experts involved in the evaluation stressed its potential use in a real clinical environment and the benefits it would bring in terms of cost and sharing knowledge among clinical personnel. Our proposed ontology-based system provides an understandable and organized solution to capture knowledge regarding item management and usage. It addresses the integration challenge of health catalogs while providing a framework for collaborative sharing and knowledge acquisition among clinicians.