This is one of the possible Use Cases.
1. Abstract
Experts in product features (such as vendors) publish knowledge bases which can be combined to help determine how products will behave and interact. This allows customers, consultants, and down-stream elements of a supply chain to make better decisions. This is more than product data, because it involves expertise about how products interact and work in various settings.
2. Status
Proposed in the WG charter by SandroHawke, using a narrative form and instantiated with the product being a medicine.
3. Impact
- Requires that rule bases use a shared (or mergeable) ontology and can then be merged themselves
- Only useful when there is a criticial mass of vendors/experts in a market
4. Breakdown
4.1. Actors and their Goals
- End-User: wants a product that meets his need, to be used in combination with other products
- Originating-Vendor: wants to sell a product and have satisified customers
- Product-Expert: wants to help end-users find satisfactory products
- Intermediate-Vendor: wants to sell a product, obtained from Originating-Vendor, and have satisfied customers
4.2. Main Sequence
- End-User ... does something
- someone else does something else....
4.3. Alternate Sequence: Intermediate Vendor
5. Narratives
5.1. Validating Prescriptions
Bob goes to his new physician, Dr. Rosen, complaining of a painful cough and some difficulty breathing. The diagnosis of pneumonia is straightforward, and Dr. Rosen prepares to prescribe erythromycin. First, he asks Bob if he is taking any medications. Unfortunately, Bob is not entirely forthcoming: he says no, even though he takes pimozide to help manage Tourette's disorder. The omission seems harmless enough, and Bob is uncomfortable with people knowing about this difficult aspect of his medical history.
Fortunately, Bob uses the same pharmacy for both prescriptions, and his pharmacy checks all prescriptions against a merged, multi-source rule base. This rule base includes the fact that erythromycin is a macrolide antibiotic (coming from the erythromycin vendor) and an encoding of the 1996 FDA bulletin that pimozide is contraindicated with macrolides. When the pharmacist enters the prescription, he is informed of the potentially dangerous drug interaction. He talks to Bob, and with Bob's permission contacts Dr. Rosen to plan an alternative therapy.
The same technology could be made available to doctors, to double check their own knowledge and available references, and to consumers who want to take a greater role in understand their own health care.
6. Commentary
This is a kind of an OWL++ use case.