Using Semantic Web Technologies in Visualizing Medicinal Vocabularies

Abstract

The number of new medications and medicinal knowledge increases all the time. Further, as each drug has its unique indications, cross-reactivity, complications and costs also the management and dissemination of medication information becomes still more complex giving rise for potential medication errors. However, by utilizing the Semantic Web technologies in visualizing medication information this complexity can be alleviated in many ways. In this paper we report our work on developing an electronic medicinal vocabulary. It deviates from other medicinal vocabularies in that the terms and their relationships are graphically illustrated and additional queries can be made on the graphical presentation. The supported visualization format is a variation of the concept mapping.