A similar study on ontological queries in Electronic Health
Records in the Massachusetts General Hospital was performed in
2011 [13]. This study sought to search EHR using ontological
methods for relevant past medical history in order to avoid
excessive radiology studies. The results showed that quick results
provided physicians with salient data that could aid in their
decision about radiology imaging as part of their work up [14].
The study indicates similar results to our search across EHRs in
the emergency medical services field, in that it is limited by the
available information at the time of the query and must ultimately
be validated by a clinician. It was used as a tool in the decisions
support process, but it was limited to providing a read only
resource. Our method takes the results and creates a new CDA
document based on our previous TRS profile and incorporates
suggested differential diagnoses to the list to guide the provider
through their treatment. Currently the only way to view CDA
documents is to select individual documents, sorted by type, and
view them one at a time. Our approach streamlines this process
for the transport environment where time is a very limited
resource; however, our methodology can be applied to other areas
of healthcare where viewing a single medical document can prove
advantageous. This could be in the emergency department setting
or as an anesthesia report during preoperative surgery procedures.