Guava: Capturing the Intrinsic Organization of Knowledge in User InterfacesJames Terwilliger and Lois Delcambre

Computer Science DepartmentPortland State University

Judith Logan, MDDivision of Medical Informatics & Clinical Epidemiology

Oregon Health & Science University

Clinical Outcomes Research Initiative (CORI)

report

report

UI

UI

CORIWarehouse

de-identifiedpatientmedicalreports

CORIAnalysts

statisticalanalysis to

study and improvethe practice of

endsocopy

extracteddata…

DB structure istypically “generic”with no indicationof which table iswhich

The Traditional Approach vs. The Guava Approach

UI DB SQL

analyst user application

UI

DB SQL Query

Interface

analyst

user

application

NS DB

channel

g-tree

GUAVA: UI generates g-tree, then g-tree generates natural schema

Traditional approach: analyst writes queries against (physical) DB

DB

CORI warehouse

Problem Statement

The data analysts at CORI are experts in statistical method and clinical terminology

They are not necessarily database or programming experts

The only knowledge organization systems available to them are database schemas

To Make Matters More Difficult…

In the past, there was only one source of data

Soon, they may be analyzing data from as many as five, each with its own arcane schema

Guava

Builds an ontology DIRECTLY from the user interface for the reporting tool – one for each data source/UI

Use this ontology (from the UI) as a query interface

All UI information is now also searchable

A Simple UI and its Implied Ontology (Guava Tree)

Endoscopy(Entity)

Personnel(Container)

Outcomes(Container)

Endoscopist (Attribute)

Anesthetist (Attribute)

Procedure Complete (Attribute)

Severity(Attribute)

Details(Control)

Endoscopy Details(Entity)

Primary Finding

(Attribute)

Other Findings

(Attribute)

Anesthesia Required (Attribute)

Complications Occurred (Attribute)

Post-Operative Instructions (Attribute)

Other Surgery Required (Attribute)

Single-Launch

Simple Query Against a Guava Tree

Endoscopy(Entity)

Personnel(Container)

Outcomes(Container)

Endoscopist (Attribute)

Anesthetist = “Bob” (Attribute)

Procedure Complete (Attribute)

Severity = “Normal”(Attribute)

Details(Control)

Endoscopy Details(Entity)

Primary Finding

(Attribute)

Other Findings

(Attribute)

Anesthesia Required = true

(Attribute)

Complications Occurred

(Attribute)

Post-Operative Instructions (Attribute)

Other Surgery Required

(Attribute)

Single-Launch

Bold means “print”; filters shown inline

Query is used to select reports, not evaluate sophisticated predicates or calculations

Classifiers Allows user to conform the elements

and domains of one Guava Tree to those of another

NoneLight

ModerateHeavy

PacksPerDay = 00 < PacksPerDay < 22 ≤ PacksPerDay < 5PacksPerDay ≥ 5

NoneLight

ModerateHeavy

PacksPerDay = 00 < PacksPerDay < 11 ≤ PacksPerDay < 2PacksPerDay ≥ 2

Classifier Habits (Cancer) Classifies packs per day according to conversations with cancer study on 5/3/02

Classifier Habits (Chemistry) Classifies packs per day according to flier from chemical studies

TumorX * TumorY * TumorZ * 0.52

TumorX > 0 ANDTumorY > 0 ANDTumorZ > 0

Classifier Tumor Size Estimates tumor volume based on dimensions in 3-space. Assumes 52% occupancy from sphere-to-cube ratio.

Analyst Feedback (Informal)

Held on September 14, 2006 Demonstrated query interface capabilities

of early prototype to the CORI analysts Response was entirely positive

“So much potential”“Very useful”“Exciting”

Most excited about the capability of searching the content of the UI

Status

Early prototype is complete, showing the Guava Tree as a tree structure

Next version will use mock-ups of UIPose queries by entering sample data in

formReturns results that match the sample dataView results in context of the form through

which it was entered