IFIP advances in information and communication technology, 2015
This paper describes the requirements engineering methodology used for the definition of semantic... more This paper describes the requirements engineering methodology used for the definition of semantic sensors in a Crisis and Disaster Management framework. The goal of the framework is effective management of emergencies which depends on timely information availability, reliability and intelligibility. To achieve this, different Command and Control (C2) Systems and Sensor Systems have to cooperate and interoperate. Unless standards and well-defined specifications are used, however, the interoperability of these systems can be very complex. To address this challenge, in the C2-SENSE project, a "profiling" approach will be used to achieve seamless interoperability by addressing all the layers of the communication stack in the security field. The main objective is to develop a profile based Emergency Interoperability framework by the use of existing standards and semantically enriched Web services to expose the functionalities of C2 Systems, Sensor Systems and other Emergency and Crisis Management systems. We introduce the concepts of Semantic Sensors, describe the characteristics of Sensor Systems in Emergency Management, and the methodology of requirements engineering for such a framework.
This CEN Workshop Agreement summarizes the results of the GITB project's second phase (http:/... more This CEN Workshop Agreement summarizes the results of the GITB project's second phase (http://www.ebusiness-testbed.eu/). The Global eBusiness Interoperability Test Bed (GITB) project aims at 1) developing the required global Testing Framework, architecture and methodologies for state-of-the-art eBusiness Specifications and profiles covering all layers of the interoperability stack (business processes, business documents, transport and communication); 2) supporting the realization of GITB as a network of multiple Test Beds, thereby leveraging existing and future testing capabilities from different stakeholders (for example standards development organizations and industry consortia, Test Bed Providers, and accreditation / certification authorities); 3) establishing under EU support and guidance, a setup of a comprehensive and global eBusiness interoperability Test Bed infrastructure in a global collaboration of European, North American and Asian partners. Main result of the second phase is the GITB Testing Framework which comprises architecture, methodology and guidelines for assisting in the creation, use and coordination of Test Beds, including • Test Artifacts (test logic, test configuration and test output documents), • Test Service and interface definitions (design, deploy, execute, search), • Test Bed Components (core platform and user-facing components as well as "plug-ins" for specific testing capabilities), • a Test Registry and Repository (for managing, archiving and sharing distributed Testing Resources). This GITB Testing Framework has been instantiated and validated for the use cases, and a pilot implementation has been done in one case.
Remote monitoring and follow-up of cardiac implantable electronic devices (CIEDs) introduces nove... more Remote monitoring and follow-up of cardiac implantable electronic devices (CIEDs) introduces novel patient-focused and information-driven models of care. In this context, iCARDEA employs guideline-driven personalized care plans that use information from personal health records, hospital-based medical records, and CIED reports from remote follow-up or alarms to support clinical decision making. The aim of this paper is to report on extending the iCARDEA Electronic Health Record Interoperability Framework (EHR-IF) to enable use of patient summaries from the epSOS large scale pilot and clinical data from primary care, tovalidate the extensibility of the iCARDEA approach and to analyze the wider technical and organizational interoperability challenges of deploying IHE profiles in telemedicine.
This paper describes how semantic interoperability can be achieved in emergency management domain... more This paper describes how semantic interoperability can be achieved in emergency management domain where different organizations in different domains should communicate through a number of distinct standards to manage crises and disasters effectively. To achieve this goal, a common ontology is defined as lingua franca and standard content models are mapped one by one to the ontology. Then, information represented in one standard is converted to another according to the mappings and exchanged between parties.
I hereby declare that all information in this document has been obtained and presented in accorda... more I hereby declare that all information in this document has been obtained and presented in accordance with academic rules and ethical conduct. I also declare that, as required by these rules and conduct, I have fully cited and referenced all material and results that are not original to this work.
Nowadays, many different Command and Control (C2) Systems and Sensor Systems take part in disaste... more Nowadays, many different Command and Control (C2) Systems and Sensor Systems take part in disaster management and maritime surveillance activities. In order to manage disasters effectively and achieve powerful surveillance, it is essential for C2 and Sensor Systems to cooperate and exchange timely available, reliable and intelligible information. Although globally accepted standards are used commonly in C2 and Sensor domains, there is no single specification of using these standards together for cooperation of disparate systems, which creates a crucial interoperability challenge. To address this challenge, profiling is a practical approach to achieve seamless interoperability among C2 and Sensor Systems. In this paper we describe how profiling approach can address the interoperability challenge among C2 and Sensor Systems, and present 13 identified profiles to be used by organizations with their C2 and Sensor Systems in disaster management and maritime surveillance activities.
Objectives: The objective of this paper is to describe some of the major healthcare information t... more Objectives: The objective of this paper is to describe some of the major healthcare information technology (IT) infrastructures in Turkey, namely, Sağlık-Net (Turkish for "Health-Net"), the Centralized Hospital Appointment System, the Basic Health Statistics Module, the Core Resources Management System, and the e-prescription system of the Social Security Institution. International collaboration projects that are integrated with Sağlık-Net are also briefly summarized. Methods: The authors provide a survey of the some of the major healthcare IT infrastructures in Turkey. Results: Sağlık-Net has two main components: the National Health Information System (NHIS) and the Family Medicine Information System (FMIS). The NHIS is a nationwide infrastructure for sharing patients' Electronic Health Records (EHRs). So far, EHRs of 78.9 million people have been created in the NHIS. Similarly, family medicine is operational in the whole country via FMIS. Centralized Hospital Appointment System enables the citizens to easily make appointments in healthcare providers. Basic Health Statistics Module is used for collecting information about the health status, risks and indicators across the country. Core Resources Management System speeds up the flow of information between the headquarters and Provincial Health Directorates. The e-prescription system is linked with Sağlık-Net and seamlessly integrated with the healthcare provider information systems. Finally, Turkey is involved in several international projects for experience sharing and disseminating national developments. Conclusion: With the introduction of the "Health Transformation Program" in 2003, a number of successful healthcare IT infrastructures have been developed in Turkey. Currently, work is going on to enhance and further improve their functionality.
Cardiovascular Implantable Electronic Devices (CIED) are gaining popularity in treating patients ... more Cardiovascular Implantable Electronic Devices (CIED) are gaining popularity in treating patients with heart disease. Remote monitoring through care management systems enables continuous surveillance of such patients by checking device functions and clinical events. These care management systems include decision support capabilities based on clinical guidelines. Data input to such systems are from different information sources including medical devices and Electronic Health Records (EHRs). Although evidence-based clinical guidelines provides numerous benefits such as standardized care, reduced costs, efficient and effective care management, they are currently underutilized in clinical practice due to interoperability problems among different healthcare data sources. In this paper, we introduce the iCARDEA care management system for atrial fibrillation patients with implant devices and describe how the iCARDEA care plan engine executes the clinical guidelines by seamlessly accessing the EHR systems and the CIED data through standard interfaces.
Public reporting burden for the collection of information is estimated to average 1 hour per resp... more Public reporting burden for the collection of information is estimated to average 1 hour per response, including the time for reviewing instructions, searching existing data sources, gathering and maintaining the data needed, and completing and reviewing the collection of information. Send comments regarding this burden estimate or any other aspect of this collection of information, including suggestions for reducing this burden, to Washington Headquarters Services, Directorate for Information Operations and Reports, 1215 Jefferson Davis Highway, Suite 1204, Arlington VA 22202-4302. Respondents should be aware that notwithstanding any other provision of law, no person shall be subject to a penalty for failing to comply with a collection of information if it does not display a currently valid OMB control number.
This study presents an open and interoperable maritime surveillance framework with multimodal sen... more This study presents an open and interoperable maritime surveillance framework with multimodal sensor networks and an automated decisionmaking. The intention is to improve sea-border control, plugging the gaps in the maritime security with interoperability solutions and have wide-area situational awareness, thus particular reducing the number of illegal immigrants crossing sea borders in small boats, with a cost-effective approach. In this paper initial results are presented.
International Journal of Medical Informatics, Jul 1, 2016
Introduction: It is estimated that more than 382 million people suffer from diabetes across the g... more Introduction: It is estimated that more than 382 million people suffer from diabetes across the globe, most of which are between the age of 40 and 59 years. ICT can play a key role in better management of diabetes and in patient empowerment. Patient empowerment involves patients to a greater extent in their own healthcare process and disease management becomes an integrated part of their daily life. Self-management opens the possibility for patients to contribute to their own healthcare as well as to be more in control of their disease. Objectives: The objective of our study was to explore the impact of an ICT-based patient empowerment framework in diabetes self-management. Methods: A modular patient empowerment framework that fosters diabetes self-management was designed and implemented. The framework incorporates expert knowledge in the form of clinical guidelines, and it supports patients in the specification of personalized activities that are based on medical recommendations and personal goals, and in the collection of observations of daily living. The usability and usefulness of the proposed framework were assessed in a pilot study with the participation of 60 patients and 12 health professionals. Results: The study revealed that a patient empowerment approach based on self-management ICT tools is useful and accepted by both the patients and the physicians. For those patients who were already disciplined in their disease management the piloted solution served as a facilitator for data logging. For the rest, it served as an incentive for better adherence to disease management principles. The ICT tools prompted many patients into becoming more physically active and into making dietary habits' adjustments. However, this impact proved to be tightly correlated with the sociocultural background of the subjects. The study also demonstrated that even in patient-centric self-management interventions the physicians still have a key role to play. However, the acceptance of such interventions by the healthcare professionals depends not only on the level of impact in their patients' disease management but also on the level of impact in their workflow. Conclusions: It is evident that a patient empowerment approach based on self-management ICT tools is useful and accepted by patients and physicians. Further, there are clear indications that ICT frameworks such as the one presented in this paper support patients in behavioral changes and in better disease management. Finally, it was realized that selfmanagement solutions should be built around the objective not only to educate and guide patients in disease self-management, but also to assist them in exploring the decision space and to provide insight and explanations about the impact of their own values on the decision.
In medical clinics, guidelines are the best ways for practitioners to make good decisions on pati... more In medical clinics, guidelines are the best ways for practitioners to make good decisions on patient's medical problems. There are different kinds of symptoms at all kinds of illnesses and this will affect the medicians' decision on the diagnosis/treatment. These guidelines are the results of an algorithm to follow and the ways to defeat the illness. These guidelines are developed in textual format. In order to process them in computer systems, a machine procesable format, called GLIF, is developed and this format is widely used througout the world. In this way, the clinical guidelines can be encoded in GLIF format and they can be used in hospital information systems. Currently, H1N1 pandemic flu (i.e. Swine flu) is a global threat. Only in Turkey, there are about 350 casualties as annouced by the Ministry of Health. Furthermore, Ministry of Health published a guideline towards the diagnosis and initial treatment of H1N1. However, it is in textual format; in other words it is not machine processable. In this paper, we have developed a system, called HINlDiagnose, to be used in the diagnosis of the H1N1 flu. In this respect, we first developed the GLIF format of the textual guideline and then implemented a guideline execution engine that process the guideline. In other words, this is an expert system that helps the practitioners for the analysis of patient data and make the diognosis. Indeed, the system is not specific to a single H1N1 guideline. It is generic in that it can process any guideline in GLIF format.
Comprehensive semantic descriptions of Web services are essential to exploit them in their full p... more Comprehensive semantic descriptions of Web services are essential to exploit them in their full potential, that is, discovering them dynamically, and enabling automated service negotiation, composition and monitoring. The semantic mechanisms currently available in service registries which are based on taxonomies fail to provide the means to achieve this. Although the terms taxonomy and ontology are sometimes used interchangably there is a critical difference. A taxonomy indicates only class/subclass relationship whereas an ontology describes a domain completely. The essential mechanisms that ontology languages provide include their formal specification (which allows them to be queried) and their ability to define properties of classes. Through properties very accurate descriptions of services can be defined and services can be related to other services or resources. In this paper, we discuss the advantages of describing service semantics through ontology languages and describe how to relate the semantics defined with the services advertised in service registries like UDDI and ebXML.
This document defines the ebXML Registry profile for enhancing ebXML Registry with OWL semantics ... more This document defines the ebXML Registry profile for enhancing ebXML Registry with OWL semantics to make it OWL aware.
The SMP starts during a medical consultation, where the healthcare provider forwards patient-spec... more The SMP starts during a medical consultation, where the healthcare provider forwards patient-specific recommendations to the patients’ PHRS. Based on these recommendations, the patient should be able to derive self-management goals and schedule concrete activities for the upcoming week. During the week, the patient may receive reminders to perform the activities and will collect “observations of daily living” (ODLs) using his smartphone or a web application. After that, the patient performs a weekly review to be used as basis for upcoming consultations.
Diabetes is a serious world-wide medical challenge and there is a recognised need for improved di... more Diabetes is a serious world-wide medical challenge and there is a recognised need for improved diabetes care outcomes. This paper describes results of the EMPOWER project, to foster the self-management of diabetes patients by integration of existing and new services offered to patients after having been diagnosed with diabetes. The Self-Management Pathway described in this paper helps patients in the specification of personalized activities based on medical recommendations and personal goals, as well as self-monitoring of the results. The whole process is supported by innovative ICT services that motivate patients to change their lifestyle and adhere to defined medication and activity plans. We describe the approach and present the findings of the validation phase in Germany and Turkey.
In this paper we describe a framework for exploiting the semantics of Web services through UDDI r... more In this paper we describe a framework for exploiting the semantics of Web services through UDDI registries. As a part of this framework, we extend the DAML-S upper ontology to describe the functionality we find essential for ebusinesses. This functionality includes relating the services with electronic catalogs, describing the complementary services and finding services according to the properties of products or services. Once the semantics is defined, there is a need for a mechanism in the service registry to relate it with the service advertised. The ontology model developed is general enough to be used with any service registry. However when it comes to relating the semantics with services advertised, the capabilities provided by the registry effects how this is achieved. We demonstrate how to integrate the described service semantics to UDDI registries.
Advances in intelligent systems and computing, Nov 2, 2017
Like in any other domains, interoperability is a key challenge in electronic emergency management... more Like in any other domains, interoperability is a key challenge in electronic emergency management and it is only possible through standardization. There are a number of disparate standardization activities in this domain towards different layers of communication stack from physical interoperability to organizational interoperability. However, their extensive and effective adoption has not been achieved due to the lack of supporting certification mechanisms. In other words, claiming conformance to these standards is not formally described. In this paper, within the scope of European Commission supported C2-SENSE project, we propose standard mechanisms for the conformance/interoperability testing of the emergency management standards and their certification. The mechanism is based on CEN/WS Global Interoperability Test Bed initiative where an online test bed is accessed by the implementers of the emergency management systems, which claim conformance to the standards, and execute testing scenarios like in a real life setting.
Patient Empowerment engages individuals in taking care of their own health. This has been identif... more Patient Empowerment engages individuals in taking care of their own health. This has been identified as a key element of change for improved quality and safety in healthcare. In the iCARDEA project, we aim at enabling cardiovascular implantable electronic device (CIED) patients to take a more active role in their own healthcare management by offering relevant information material and patient empowerment services in order to facilitate self-management. We present the main requirements and the design of the resulting PHR system for cardiac patients.
BACKGROUND The increasing population of senior citizens has led to a rise in the demand for healt... more BACKGROUND The increasing population of senior citizens has led to a rise in the demand for healthcare services, with chronic diseases being a major burden. Person-centered integrated care is required to address these challenges; hence, the Turkish Ministry of Health has initiated strategies to implement an integrated healthcare model for chronic disease management. OBJECTIVE We aim to present the design, implementation, and initial nationwide performance results of the national Disease Management Platform (DMP). The objective of this platform is to enable the implementation of an integrated health service model for chronic disease management in Turkey in a family physician-centered manner. It aims to ensure that national clinical treatment protocols that are designed based on evidence-based clinical guidelines are carried out effectively and easily followed with the help of decision support services. METHODS Disease Management Platform is an integrated care solution that heavily ut...
IFIP advances in information and communication technology, 2015
This paper describes the requirements engineering methodology used for the definition of semantic... more This paper describes the requirements engineering methodology used for the definition of semantic sensors in a Crisis and Disaster Management framework. The goal of the framework is effective management of emergencies which depends on timely information availability, reliability and intelligibility. To achieve this, different Command and Control (C2) Systems and Sensor Systems have to cooperate and interoperate. Unless standards and well-defined specifications are used, however, the interoperability of these systems can be very complex. To address this challenge, in the C2-SENSE project, a "profiling" approach will be used to achieve seamless interoperability by addressing all the layers of the communication stack in the security field. The main objective is to develop a profile based Emergency Interoperability framework by the use of existing standards and semantically enriched Web services to expose the functionalities of C2 Systems, Sensor Systems and other Emergency and Crisis Management systems. We introduce the concepts of Semantic Sensors, describe the characteristics of Sensor Systems in Emergency Management, and the methodology of requirements engineering for such a framework.
This CEN Workshop Agreement summarizes the results of the GITB project's second phase (http:/... more This CEN Workshop Agreement summarizes the results of the GITB project's second phase (http://www.ebusiness-testbed.eu/). The Global eBusiness Interoperability Test Bed (GITB) project aims at 1) developing the required global Testing Framework, architecture and methodologies for state-of-the-art eBusiness Specifications and profiles covering all layers of the interoperability stack (business processes, business documents, transport and communication); 2) supporting the realization of GITB as a network of multiple Test Beds, thereby leveraging existing and future testing capabilities from different stakeholders (for example standards development organizations and industry consortia, Test Bed Providers, and accreditation / certification authorities); 3) establishing under EU support and guidance, a setup of a comprehensive and global eBusiness interoperability Test Bed infrastructure in a global collaboration of European, North American and Asian partners. Main result of the second phase is the GITB Testing Framework which comprises architecture, methodology and guidelines for assisting in the creation, use and coordination of Test Beds, including • Test Artifacts (test logic, test configuration and test output documents), • Test Service and interface definitions (design, deploy, execute, search), • Test Bed Components (core platform and user-facing components as well as "plug-ins" for specific testing capabilities), • a Test Registry and Repository (for managing, archiving and sharing distributed Testing Resources). This GITB Testing Framework has been instantiated and validated for the use cases, and a pilot implementation has been done in one case.
Remote monitoring and follow-up of cardiac implantable electronic devices (CIEDs) introduces nove... more Remote monitoring and follow-up of cardiac implantable electronic devices (CIEDs) introduces novel patient-focused and information-driven models of care. In this context, iCARDEA employs guideline-driven personalized care plans that use information from personal health records, hospital-based medical records, and CIED reports from remote follow-up or alarms to support clinical decision making. The aim of this paper is to report on extending the iCARDEA Electronic Health Record Interoperability Framework (EHR-IF) to enable use of patient summaries from the epSOS large scale pilot and clinical data from primary care, tovalidate the extensibility of the iCARDEA approach and to analyze the wider technical and organizational interoperability challenges of deploying IHE profiles in telemedicine.
This paper describes how semantic interoperability can be achieved in emergency management domain... more This paper describes how semantic interoperability can be achieved in emergency management domain where different organizations in different domains should communicate through a number of distinct standards to manage crises and disasters effectively. To achieve this goal, a common ontology is defined as lingua franca and standard content models are mapped one by one to the ontology. Then, information represented in one standard is converted to another according to the mappings and exchanged between parties.
I hereby declare that all information in this document has been obtained and presented in accorda... more I hereby declare that all information in this document has been obtained and presented in accordance with academic rules and ethical conduct. I also declare that, as required by these rules and conduct, I have fully cited and referenced all material and results that are not original to this work.
Nowadays, many different Command and Control (C2) Systems and Sensor Systems take part in disaste... more Nowadays, many different Command and Control (C2) Systems and Sensor Systems take part in disaster management and maritime surveillance activities. In order to manage disasters effectively and achieve powerful surveillance, it is essential for C2 and Sensor Systems to cooperate and exchange timely available, reliable and intelligible information. Although globally accepted standards are used commonly in C2 and Sensor domains, there is no single specification of using these standards together for cooperation of disparate systems, which creates a crucial interoperability challenge. To address this challenge, profiling is a practical approach to achieve seamless interoperability among C2 and Sensor Systems. In this paper we describe how profiling approach can address the interoperability challenge among C2 and Sensor Systems, and present 13 identified profiles to be used by organizations with their C2 and Sensor Systems in disaster management and maritime surveillance activities.
Objectives: The objective of this paper is to describe some of the major healthcare information t... more Objectives: The objective of this paper is to describe some of the major healthcare information technology (IT) infrastructures in Turkey, namely, Sağlık-Net (Turkish for "Health-Net"), the Centralized Hospital Appointment System, the Basic Health Statistics Module, the Core Resources Management System, and the e-prescription system of the Social Security Institution. International collaboration projects that are integrated with Sağlık-Net are also briefly summarized. Methods: The authors provide a survey of the some of the major healthcare IT infrastructures in Turkey. Results: Sağlık-Net has two main components: the National Health Information System (NHIS) and the Family Medicine Information System (FMIS). The NHIS is a nationwide infrastructure for sharing patients' Electronic Health Records (EHRs). So far, EHRs of 78.9 million people have been created in the NHIS. Similarly, family medicine is operational in the whole country via FMIS. Centralized Hospital Appointment System enables the citizens to easily make appointments in healthcare providers. Basic Health Statistics Module is used for collecting information about the health status, risks and indicators across the country. Core Resources Management System speeds up the flow of information between the headquarters and Provincial Health Directorates. The e-prescription system is linked with Sağlık-Net and seamlessly integrated with the healthcare provider information systems. Finally, Turkey is involved in several international projects for experience sharing and disseminating national developments. Conclusion: With the introduction of the "Health Transformation Program" in 2003, a number of successful healthcare IT infrastructures have been developed in Turkey. Currently, work is going on to enhance and further improve their functionality.
Cardiovascular Implantable Electronic Devices (CIED) are gaining popularity in treating patients ... more Cardiovascular Implantable Electronic Devices (CIED) are gaining popularity in treating patients with heart disease. Remote monitoring through care management systems enables continuous surveillance of such patients by checking device functions and clinical events. These care management systems include decision support capabilities based on clinical guidelines. Data input to such systems are from different information sources including medical devices and Electronic Health Records (EHRs). Although evidence-based clinical guidelines provides numerous benefits such as standardized care, reduced costs, efficient and effective care management, they are currently underutilized in clinical practice due to interoperability problems among different healthcare data sources. In this paper, we introduce the iCARDEA care management system for atrial fibrillation patients with implant devices and describe how the iCARDEA care plan engine executes the clinical guidelines by seamlessly accessing the EHR systems and the CIED data through standard interfaces.
Public reporting burden for the collection of information is estimated to average 1 hour per resp... more Public reporting burden for the collection of information is estimated to average 1 hour per response, including the time for reviewing instructions, searching existing data sources, gathering and maintaining the data needed, and completing and reviewing the collection of information. Send comments regarding this burden estimate or any other aspect of this collection of information, including suggestions for reducing this burden, to Washington Headquarters Services, Directorate for Information Operations and Reports, 1215 Jefferson Davis Highway, Suite 1204, Arlington VA 22202-4302. Respondents should be aware that notwithstanding any other provision of law, no person shall be subject to a penalty for failing to comply with a collection of information if it does not display a currently valid OMB control number.
This study presents an open and interoperable maritime surveillance framework with multimodal sen... more This study presents an open and interoperable maritime surveillance framework with multimodal sensor networks and an automated decisionmaking. The intention is to improve sea-border control, plugging the gaps in the maritime security with interoperability solutions and have wide-area situational awareness, thus particular reducing the number of illegal immigrants crossing sea borders in small boats, with a cost-effective approach. In this paper initial results are presented.
International Journal of Medical Informatics, Jul 1, 2016
Introduction: It is estimated that more than 382 million people suffer from diabetes across the g... more Introduction: It is estimated that more than 382 million people suffer from diabetes across the globe, most of which are between the age of 40 and 59 years. ICT can play a key role in better management of diabetes and in patient empowerment. Patient empowerment involves patients to a greater extent in their own healthcare process and disease management becomes an integrated part of their daily life. Self-management opens the possibility for patients to contribute to their own healthcare as well as to be more in control of their disease. Objectives: The objective of our study was to explore the impact of an ICT-based patient empowerment framework in diabetes self-management. Methods: A modular patient empowerment framework that fosters diabetes self-management was designed and implemented. The framework incorporates expert knowledge in the form of clinical guidelines, and it supports patients in the specification of personalized activities that are based on medical recommendations and personal goals, and in the collection of observations of daily living. The usability and usefulness of the proposed framework were assessed in a pilot study with the participation of 60 patients and 12 health professionals. Results: The study revealed that a patient empowerment approach based on self-management ICT tools is useful and accepted by both the patients and the physicians. For those patients who were already disciplined in their disease management the piloted solution served as a facilitator for data logging. For the rest, it served as an incentive for better adherence to disease management principles. The ICT tools prompted many patients into becoming more physically active and into making dietary habits' adjustments. However, this impact proved to be tightly correlated with the sociocultural background of the subjects. The study also demonstrated that even in patient-centric self-management interventions the physicians still have a key role to play. However, the acceptance of such interventions by the healthcare professionals depends not only on the level of impact in their patients' disease management but also on the level of impact in their workflow. Conclusions: It is evident that a patient empowerment approach based on self-management ICT tools is useful and accepted by patients and physicians. Further, there are clear indications that ICT frameworks such as the one presented in this paper support patients in behavioral changes and in better disease management. Finally, it was realized that selfmanagement solutions should be built around the objective not only to educate and guide patients in disease self-management, but also to assist them in exploring the decision space and to provide insight and explanations about the impact of their own values on the decision.
In medical clinics, guidelines are the best ways for practitioners to make good decisions on pati... more In medical clinics, guidelines are the best ways for practitioners to make good decisions on patient's medical problems. There are different kinds of symptoms at all kinds of illnesses and this will affect the medicians' decision on the diagnosis/treatment. These guidelines are the results of an algorithm to follow and the ways to defeat the illness. These guidelines are developed in textual format. In order to process them in computer systems, a machine procesable format, called GLIF, is developed and this format is widely used througout the world. In this way, the clinical guidelines can be encoded in GLIF format and they can be used in hospital information systems. Currently, H1N1 pandemic flu (i.e. Swine flu) is a global threat. Only in Turkey, there are about 350 casualties as annouced by the Ministry of Health. Furthermore, Ministry of Health published a guideline towards the diagnosis and initial treatment of H1N1. However, it is in textual format; in other words it is not machine processable. In this paper, we have developed a system, called HINlDiagnose, to be used in the diagnosis of the H1N1 flu. In this respect, we first developed the GLIF format of the textual guideline and then implemented a guideline execution engine that process the guideline. In other words, this is an expert system that helps the practitioners for the analysis of patient data and make the diognosis. Indeed, the system is not specific to a single H1N1 guideline. It is generic in that it can process any guideline in GLIF format.
Comprehensive semantic descriptions of Web services are essential to exploit them in their full p... more Comprehensive semantic descriptions of Web services are essential to exploit them in their full potential, that is, discovering them dynamically, and enabling automated service negotiation, composition and monitoring. The semantic mechanisms currently available in service registries which are based on taxonomies fail to provide the means to achieve this. Although the terms taxonomy and ontology are sometimes used interchangably there is a critical difference. A taxonomy indicates only class/subclass relationship whereas an ontology describes a domain completely. The essential mechanisms that ontology languages provide include their formal specification (which allows them to be queried) and their ability to define properties of classes. Through properties very accurate descriptions of services can be defined and services can be related to other services or resources. In this paper, we discuss the advantages of describing service semantics through ontology languages and describe how to relate the semantics defined with the services advertised in service registries like UDDI and ebXML.
This document defines the ebXML Registry profile for enhancing ebXML Registry with OWL semantics ... more This document defines the ebXML Registry profile for enhancing ebXML Registry with OWL semantics to make it OWL aware.
The SMP starts during a medical consultation, where the healthcare provider forwards patient-spec... more The SMP starts during a medical consultation, where the healthcare provider forwards patient-specific recommendations to the patients’ PHRS. Based on these recommendations, the patient should be able to derive self-management goals and schedule concrete activities for the upcoming week. During the week, the patient may receive reminders to perform the activities and will collect “observations of daily living” (ODLs) using his smartphone or a web application. After that, the patient performs a weekly review to be used as basis for upcoming consultations.
Diabetes is a serious world-wide medical challenge and there is a recognised need for improved di... more Diabetes is a serious world-wide medical challenge and there is a recognised need for improved diabetes care outcomes. This paper describes results of the EMPOWER project, to foster the self-management of diabetes patients by integration of existing and new services offered to patients after having been diagnosed with diabetes. The Self-Management Pathway described in this paper helps patients in the specification of personalized activities based on medical recommendations and personal goals, as well as self-monitoring of the results. The whole process is supported by innovative ICT services that motivate patients to change their lifestyle and adhere to defined medication and activity plans. We describe the approach and present the findings of the validation phase in Germany and Turkey.
In this paper we describe a framework for exploiting the semantics of Web services through UDDI r... more In this paper we describe a framework for exploiting the semantics of Web services through UDDI registries. As a part of this framework, we extend the DAML-S upper ontology to describe the functionality we find essential for ebusinesses. This functionality includes relating the services with electronic catalogs, describing the complementary services and finding services according to the properties of products or services. Once the semantics is defined, there is a need for a mechanism in the service registry to relate it with the service advertised. The ontology model developed is general enough to be used with any service registry. However when it comes to relating the semantics with services advertised, the capabilities provided by the registry effects how this is achieved. We demonstrate how to integrate the described service semantics to UDDI registries.
Advances in intelligent systems and computing, Nov 2, 2017
Like in any other domains, interoperability is a key challenge in electronic emergency management... more Like in any other domains, interoperability is a key challenge in electronic emergency management and it is only possible through standardization. There are a number of disparate standardization activities in this domain towards different layers of communication stack from physical interoperability to organizational interoperability. However, their extensive and effective adoption has not been achieved due to the lack of supporting certification mechanisms. In other words, claiming conformance to these standards is not formally described. In this paper, within the scope of European Commission supported C2-SENSE project, we propose standard mechanisms for the conformance/interoperability testing of the emergency management standards and their certification. The mechanism is based on CEN/WS Global Interoperability Test Bed initiative where an online test bed is accessed by the implementers of the emergency management systems, which claim conformance to the standards, and execute testing scenarios like in a real life setting.
Patient Empowerment engages individuals in taking care of their own health. This has been identif... more Patient Empowerment engages individuals in taking care of their own health. This has been identified as a key element of change for improved quality and safety in healthcare. In the iCARDEA project, we aim at enabling cardiovascular implantable electronic device (CIED) patients to take a more active role in their own healthcare management by offering relevant information material and patient empowerment services in order to facilitate self-management. We present the main requirements and the design of the resulting PHR system for cardiac patients.
BACKGROUND The increasing population of senior citizens has led to a rise in the demand for healt... more BACKGROUND The increasing population of senior citizens has led to a rise in the demand for healthcare services, with chronic diseases being a major burden. Person-centered integrated care is required to address these challenges; hence, the Turkish Ministry of Health has initiated strategies to implement an integrated healthcare model for chronic disease management. OBJECTIVE We aim to present the design, implementation, and initial nationwide performance results of the national Disease Management Platform (DMP). The objective of this platform is to enable the implementation of an integrated health service model for chronic disease management in Turkey in a family physician-centered manner. It aims to ensure that national clinical treatment protocols that are designed based on evidence-based clinical guidelines are carried out effectively and easily followed with the help of decision support services. METHODS Disease Management Platform is an integrated care solution that heavily ut...
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Papers by Yildiray Kabak