Toward Global Health Interoperability: Ontology Development of Traditional Chinese Medicine Through Comparative Analyses

The World Health Organization\´s "Health for One" initiative calls for an interoperability between various medical practices around the world. As one of the oldest medical practices, Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) has been a major global area of practice and research, and is ripe for enhanced interoperability. Such interoperability relies on a strong ontological approach to create a reusable and shareable knowledge base. This ontology enables TCM to be used in conjunction with the Health Information Technology. To enable universal interoperability, this paper proposes a framework to examine current applications of TCM ontology. The framework integrates the evaluation of two versions of TCM ontology: the current China SNOMED-CD based implementation and TCM\´s international interpretation (International Classification of Traditional Medicine). The framework also suggests a creation of a new ontology that is compatible with international standards and Health Information Technology standards.