An ontology-based framework for building economic evaluation models in health care

This paper describes a framework which provides health care professionals with a set of tools for building decision-theory based support systems for resource management optimization of health care policies in selected areas. The generated models share a common ontology underlying the different types of represented knowledge needed to tackle budget-related decisions. Each chunk of knowledge is maintained by a specific professional, i.e. a physician, a hospital administrator, an economist, etc. Thus the resulting systems will facilitate the communication among them, allowing the physician to weigh his own opinions with constraints outlined by the administrator, and vice-versa. Another advantage is the improvement of result presentation in a standard format, that is one of the most recognized problems in the reusability of cost-effectiveness studies within different settings. The proposed framework is designed to be integrated into a distributed Health Care Information System.