New Ontology Design Targets Smart Management of Occupational Cancers to Protect Workforce Health
According to the Economic Desk of Webangah News Agency, Dr. Somayyeh Farhang, the principal investigator of the research project titled “Design of an Ontology for Occupational Disease Terminology and Lexicon Specific to Occupational Health Experts,” detailed the significant findings of this study. Occupational cancers represent a critical health challenge for the workforce, demanding modern approaches for data management and knowledge generation.
The primary objective of this research was the design of a preliminary ontology model intended to structure and analyze complex data associated with work-related cancers. Dr. Farhang noted that the research utilized knowledge engineering methodologies, drawing upon authoritative international scientific sources, including documentation from the International Labour Organization (ILO).
Key concepts and semantic relationships were extracted through this process. The resulting preliminary ontology model was then designed and implemented using the specialized software, Protégé. This scientific achievement is poised to create a common, standardized language that can facilitate the development of knowledge-based decision support systems, enhance the early diagnosis of occupational cancers, and upgrade research and management processes within the field of occupational health.
Further elaborating on the policy implications, Dr. Farhang referenced a policy brief titled “Smart Management of Occupational Cancer: The Imperative for Establishing a National Ontology to Safeguard the Workforce.” This brief highlights that the rising incidence of occupational cancers, coupled with data fragmentation and a lack of integrated standards, strongly necessitates the deployment of a national occupational health ontology.
Such a comprehensive framework would integrate disparate data from hospitals, occupational health service centers, and insurance systems. This integration will pave the way for developing artificial intelligence tools, enabling timely risk detection, and creating reliable occupation-exposure matrices. The researchers proposed four key policy actions: mandating the legal registration of occupational health data based on the ontology, supporting the development of specialized ontologies for high-risk carcinogens, establishing a national data infrastructure, and designing decision-support tools for specialists and workers.
This interdisciplinary research was conducted through collaboration between specialized groups in occupational health and safety, occupational medicine, information science, linguistics, and health IT at Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, along with several other national academic institutions and scientific bodies. The outcomes are intended to serve as a scientific model for developing intelligent management systems for occupational diseases.
Interested parties can access supplementary information by reviewing articles derived from this project published in the journals “Health in the Field” and “Injury Prevention and Safety Promotion.”
