Semantic data interoperability, digital medicine, and e-health in infectious disease management: a review

Abstract

Disease management requires the use of mixed languages when discussing etiology, diagnosis, treatment, and follow-up. All phases require data management, and, in the optimal case, such data are interdisciplinary and uniform and clear to all those involved. Such semantic data interoperability is one of the technical building blocks that support emerging digital medicine, e-health, and P4-medicine (predictive, preventive, personalized, and participatory). In a world where infectious diseases are on a trend to become hard-to-treat threats due to antimicrobial resistance, semantic data interoperability is part of the toolbox to fight more efficiently against those threats. In this review, we will introduce semantic data interoperability, summarize its added value, and analyze the technical foundation supporting the standardized healthcare system interoperability that will allow moving forward to e-health. We will also review current usage of those foundational standards and advocate for their uptake by all infectious disease-related actors.

Keywords: Health Level Seven (HL7); Health information interoperability; Logical Observation Identifiers Names and Codes (LOINC); Reference standards; Systematized Nomenclature of Medicine–Clinical Terms (SNOMED CT); The Unified Code for Units of Measure (UCUM).