Detection of Health-Related Events and Behaviours from Wearable Sensor Lifestyle Data Using Symbolic Intelligence: A Proof-of-Concept Application in the Care of Multiple Sclerosis

• Main Authors: Thanos G. Stavropoulos, Georgios Meditskos, Ioulietta Lazarou, Lampros Mpaltadoros, Sotirios Papagiannopoulos, Magda Tsolaki, Ioannis Kompatsiaris
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2021-09-01
• Series: Sensors
• Subjects: wearables; sensors; ontologies; symbolic reasoning; knowledge graphs; ehealth
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/21/18/6230

In this paper, we demonstrate the potential of a knowledge-driven framework to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of care through remote and intelligent assessment. More specifically, we present a rule-based approach to detect health related problems from wearable lifestyle sensor data that add clinical value to take informed decisions on follow-up and intervention. We use OWL 2 ontologies as the underlying knowledge representation formalism for modelling contextual information and high-level concepts and relations among them. The conceptual model of our framework is defined on top of existing modelling standards, such as SOSA and WADM, promoting the creation of interoperable knowledge graphs. On top of the symbolic knowledge graphs, we define a rule-based framework for infusing expert knowledge in the form of SHACL constraints and rules to recognise patterns, anomalies and situations of interest based on the predefined and stored rules and conditions. A dashboard visualizes both sensor data and detected events to facilitate clinical supervision and decision making. Preliminary results on the performance and scalability are presented, while a focus group of clinicians involved in an exploratory research study revealed their preferences and perspectives to shape future clinical research using the framework.