Year: 2008
Type: book-chapter
Abstract: One major obstacle to realizing the general goal of building a bridge between computers and reality on the side of the patient is the existence of multiple, mutually incompatible -and, often impoverished -logical resources bequeathed to those working to improve Electronic Health Record (EHR) systems.In what follows, we will describe a logical framework that is more suitable for the purposes of the realist orientation and provide some examples of how it can be put to use. The Background of First-Order Logic (FOL)In 1879, Gottlob Frege invented the first logical system with a logically perfected language as well as a system of grammatical transformations of the sentences in that language which facilitate processing of information expressed with the language.This system developed into the standard in contemporary symbolic logic, which is known as first-order logic (FOL).Contemporary computer languages, such as the Ontology Web Language (OWL), are fragments of FOL which have certain desired computational properties.The language of FOL consists of individual terms (constants and variables), representing things in reality; predicates, representing properties and relations; logical connectives such as 'and' and 'if…then…'; and quantifiers ('for every', 'there is some').The range of variables is normally specified in advance, for example as all individuals, all persons, all numbers, and so forth.The quantifiers are then interpreted accordingly.In some cases quantification is said to be universal, and then the range of variables does not need to be specified -it comprehends, in a sense to be specified below, everything.As an illustration of the use of these ingredients, consider the assertion 'All horses' heads are animal heads.In FOL, this would read: For every individual x, if horse_head(x), then there is some individual y, such that animal(y) and head_of (x, y)
Source: De Gruyter eBooks
Author: Barry Smith
Language: English
Subfield: Health Information Management
Field: Health Professions
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W2496002128