Toward Global Health Interoperability: Ontology Development of Traditional Chinese Medicine Through Comparative Analyses

The World Health Organization's "Health for One" initiative calls for an interoperability between various medical practices around the world. As one of the oldest medical practices, Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) has been a major global area of practice and research, and is ripe for enhanced interoperability. Such interoperability relies on a strong ontological approach to create a reusable and shareable knowledge base. This ontology enables TCM to be used in conjunction with the Health Information Technology. To enable universal interoperability, this paper proposes a framework to examine current applications of TCM ontology. The framework integrates the evaluation of two versions of TCM ontology: the current China SNOMED-CD based implementation and TCM's international interpretation (International Classification of Traditional Medicine). The framework also suggests a creation of a new ontology that is compatible with international standards and Health Information Technology standards.