An ontology-based framework aiming to support cardiac rehabilitation program

© 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. Health Information technology (HIT) played important role in wide range of healthcare settings. The strategy of HIT is to reduce cost and increase efficiency. The aim of cardiac implantable devices is to reduce the effect and risk of cardiovascular diseases. The number of patients that benefits from these devices are growing rapidly. Cardiac rehabilitation program improves the ability of cardiac patient to restore his health to an optimal level and reduce his stress and depression, especially after the cardiovascular surgeries. The need for the use of ontologies in cardiac rehabilitation domain has emerged over the last years, in order to improve the standardization of cardiac rehabilitation's practice worldwide. In this study, ontology-based system for managing the cardiac rehabilitation program has been developed. The ontology presents the required functionalities to implement the program management that helps to enhance the quality of cardiac rehabilitation program. Moreover, proposed ontology contributes to enhance the understanding, reusability, sharing and transferring knowledge in the domain of cardiac rehabilitation.