Ontological based clinical decision support system (CDSS) for weaning ventilator in Intensive Care Unit (ICU)

Weaning from mechanical ventilation is a process of discontinuation or withdrawal from mechanical ventilation and it can be referred as the transition from ventilatory support to spontaneous breathing. The aim of this process is to reduce the support given by the mechanical ventilation as soon as possible to minimize mortality and morbidity, the use of resources and the costs of health care. Weaning from mechanical ventilator has been a critical issue since due its effect on over prolonged mechanical ventilation or premature weaning. It is because there is no standard for clinicians to decide when to begin a weaning process. Our review indicates that clinical decision support system (CDSS) can help clinicians to identify the earliest time when patients can be weaned from the mechanical ventilator. Recently, there is an increased request in using an ontological based system for CDSSs. This is because ontology can support a complex and semantic conceptual model for capturing and reusing information in computer application. In this paper we attempt to map a CDDS functions with clinical domain and proposed an ontological based CDSS for weaning ventilation.