Knowledge-Based Query Construction Using the CDSS Knowledge Base for Efficient Evidence Retrieval

• Published in: Sensors (Basel, Switzerland) Vol. 15; no. 9; pp. 21294 - 21314
• Main Authors: Afzal, Muhammad, Hussain, Maqbool, Ali, Taqdir, Hussain, Jamil, Khan, Wajahat Ali, Lee, Sungyoung, Kang, Byeong Ho
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 28-08-2015; MDPI
• Subjects: Arden Syntax; Artificial Intelligence; Assisted Living Facilities; automated query construction; Automation; CDSS; Chronic Disease - therapy; Clinical decision making; Construction; Control systems; Decision support systems; Decision Support Systems, Clinical; Electronic Health Records; Evidence-based medicine; Home Care Services; Humans; Information Storage and Retrieval - methods; Internet resources; Knowledge; Knowledge base; Knowledge Bases; Knowledge bases (artificial intelligence); knowledge-based queries; Logic; Manuals; medical logic modules; MEDLINE; Neoplasms - therapy; Queries; Query processing; Sensors; Software; Syntax; medical logic modules; knowledge-based queries; automated query construction; Arden Syntax; CDSS
• ISSN: 1424-8220; 1424-8220
• DOI: 10.3390/s150921294

Finding appropriate evidence to support clinical practices is always challenging, and the construction of a query to retrieve such evidence is a fundamental step. Typically, evidence is found using manual or semi-automatic methods, which are time-consuming and sometimes make it difficult to construct knowledge-based complex queries. To overcome the difficulty in constructing knowledge-based complex queries, we utilized the knowledge base (KB) of the clinical decision support system (CDSS), which has the potential to provide sufficient contextual information. To automatically construct knowledge-based complex queries, we designed methods to parse rule structure in KB of CDSS in order to determine an executable path and extract the terms by parsing the control structures and logic connectives used in the logic. The automatically constructed knowledge-based complex queries were executed on the PubMed search service to evaluate the results on the reduction of retrieved citations with high relevance. The average number of citations was reduced from 56,249 citations to 330 citations with the knowledge-based query construction approach, and relevance increased from 1 term to 6 terms on average. The ability to automatically retrieve relevant evidence maximizes efficiency for clinicians in terms of time, based on feedback collected from clinicians. This approach is generally useful in evidence-based medicine, especially in ambient assisted living environments where automation is highly important.