Integrating SCP-ECG files and patient records: an ontology based approach

Health care standards like SCP-ECG (Standard Communication Protocol for Computer Assisted Electrocardiography) aim at enhancing interoperability of digital electrocardiography. However, the complexity of information included in such a file limits the wide adoption of SCP-ECG as the default standard in the field, and restricts its integration with the corresponding EHR (Electronic Health Record). In the present work, focusing on the integration between the ECG-related information and EHR, we have developed SEIA (SCP-ECG Integrated Access), an integrated environment for managing ECGs and other medical information originating from disparate sources. The SEIA system consists of an SCP-ECG Ontology defining SCP-ECG file structure, a query mapping ontology, the database used to retrieve relevant patient data, and a GUI environment used to register SCP-ECG files, pose queries, retrieve results and visualize ECGs.