Semantic Web Services for Healthcare

Abstract

This chapter explores the ongoing efforts to integrate Web services and the Semantic Web for the purposes of sharing knowledge, enabling access to services, and application integration in distributed clinical environments. Combining the Semantic Web and Web services in relation to the healthcare domain, results in Semantic Web services for healthcare, which will enable intelligent interpretation of healthcare data by services such as clinical decision support systems. Critical issues in ontology standardization and security are discussed. The multi-disciplinary problem of service composition is presented with emphasis on the role healthcare experts play in identifying value-added medical services.