Development of application ontology of Lenke´s classification of scoliosis ? OBR-Scolio

The objective of this paper is to demonstrate the creation process of the application ontology of scoliosis OBR-Scolio using the OBR reference ontology, which is spread over anatomy, physiology and pathology domains. Since OBR reference ontology exists only as a preliminary classification and does not possess taxonomy of pathological structure, we created the OBR-Scolio ontology by employing analogy with taxonomy of anatomical structure of the FMA reference ontology of anatomy. Also, we obtained the hierarchy of object and data properties of the OBR-Scolio ontology on the basic of FMA reference ontology. The OBR-Scolio ontology is employed in the web-based information system for visualization, monitoring and diagnosing of idiopathic scoliosis - ScolioMedIS. Considering that the key ontological concepts of the OBR-Scolio ontology are intended to define Lenke´s classification of scoliosis, some of the main functionalities of this part of the information system ScolioMedIS include automation of process of determining Lenke´s type of scoliosis and statistical demographic analysis of frequency of occurrence of each specific characteristic of scoliosis according to Lenke classification. In addition, this part of the system allows continuous monitoring of progression/regression of spinal curvatures for each registered patient with scoliosis, which could help in the process of management of medical treatment of scoliosis.