A decision support resource as a kernel of a semantic Web based platform oriented to heart failure

Chronic heart failure (CHF) is a complex cardiovascular syndrome whose management requires a complex clinical program involving, at different levels, several care stakeholders and the integration and interpretation of a number of diagnostic data and information. Within the EU FP6 project HEARTFAID (www.heartfaid.org), an integrated platform of services is being developed to assist CHF stakeholders in their routine workflow and to provide an optimal management of CHF patients, by exploiting the most advanced technologies, compliant to medical standards, advanced instruments for diagnostic data processing, and significant and up-to-date knowledge, suitably formalized. The platform consists in a distributed and heterogeneous infrastructure developed by integrating different and functionally independent components according to the up-to-date service oriented technologies. A Knowledge-based Clinical Decision Support System (CDSS) constitutes the kernel of the platform and is aimed at aiding the decisional processes of CHF care givers. So far, the main functionalities of the platform and of the CDSS have been developed according to an accurate analysis of realistic clinical scenarios. Semantic web technologies are being used as the most advanced tools for formalizing, re-using and sharing medical knowledge, and reasoning on it; while a service oriented approach is being adopted for the integration and easy access to a number of users' applications. Main results are detailed and discussed in this paper.