=Paper=
{{Paper
|id=Vol-3309/paper2
|storemode=property
|title=Formalization of Chinese Image Medicine Diagnostic Space in Ontooriented Information Systems for Integrative Scientific Medicine
|pdfUrl=https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-3309/paper2.pdf
|volume=Vol-3309
|authors=Serhii Lupenko,Oleksandra Orobchuk,Igor Kateryniuk
|dblpUrl=https://dblp.org/rec/conf/ittap/LupenkoOK22
}}
==Formalization of Chinese Image Medicine Diagnostic Space in Ontooriented Information Systems for Integrative Scientific Medicine==
https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-3309/paper2.pdf
Formalization of Chinese Image Medicine Diagnostic Space in
Ontooriented Information Systems
Serhii Lupenkoa,, Oleksandra Orobchukb, Ihor Kateryniukc
a
Ternopil Ivan Puluj National Technical University, Ruska str., 56, Ternopil, 46001, Ukraine
b
Ternopil Ivan Puluj National Technical University, Ruska str., 56, Ternopil, 46001, Ukraine
c
Ternopil Ivan Puluj National Technical University, Ruska str., 56, Ternopil, 46001, Ukraine
Abstract
This article describes the diagnostic space of Chinese image medicine and also creates a
mathematical model of this space. This is an important step in the direction of development of
an integrated onto-oriented information-analytical environment of research, professional
healing and e-learning of Chinese image medicine, which is a representative of unconventional
medical areas and a promising component of integrative scientific medicine. A unified model
of diagnosis in Chinese image medicine has been developed, which is a function of topological
and nosological ontologies, as well as ontologies of methods and ontologies of metrics and
scales in Chinese image medicine.
Keywords 1
mathematical modeling, diagnostic space, ontology, information system, Chinese Image
Medicine, Integrative Scientific Medicine
1. Introduction
The healthcare industry has undergone significant transformations in recent decades, taking the
vector for a more holistic and individualized approach to healing and disease prevention. The presence
of negative side effects and aggressive treatment methods of conventional medicine repel patients,
prompting them to resort to non-traditional methods of rehabilitation, where treatment is mostly non-
invasive with minimal side effects [5, 6, 24]. The integration between official medicine (conventional,
Western) and folk (unconventional, alternative, Eastern) medicine comes to the fore, which results in
Integrative Medicine [1, 22, 27]. As an example, today many prestigious medical centers offer their
patients oriental medicine and other alternative treatments [7, 12]. Especially popular is Traditional
Chinese Medicine (TCM), the methods of which are already recognized by many countries [3, 4]. In
China itself, due to the Chinese way of life and the tradition of maintaining good health, TCM is part
of the official medical system in China [11, 21, 30].
Integrative Medicine is positioned as a project of future scientific medicine, which will be a single
metasystem that synthesizes on a dialectical or complementary basis diagnostic, therapeutic, health,
preventive and rehabilitation principles, theories, models, methods and means of various existing
medical systems. The Integrative Medicine creation is designed to eliminate the disadvantages of
conventional and unconventional medicine, through their harmonious complementation and synthesis,
which will contribute to the formation of a qualitatively new level of future medicine. WHO (World
Health Organization) Strategy contributes to this in the field of folk medicine for 2014-2023 years to
support the development, spread and implementation of folk medicine in official medicine [28].
Despite the active development of Integrative Medicine in America, China and Europe, the existence
of many international periodical scientific journals, scientific monographs on the formation of
1
ITTAP’2022: 2nd International Workshop on Information Technologies: Theoretical and Applied Problems, November 22–24, 2022,
Ternopil, Ukraine
EMAIL: lupenko.san@gmail.com (S. Lupenko); orobchuko@gmail.com (O. Orobchuk); igor.kateryniuk@gmail.com (І. Kateryniuk)
ORCID: : 0000-0002-6559-0721 (S. Lupenko); 0000-0002-8340-913X (O. Orobchuk); 0000-0002-9542-6279 (I. Kateryniuk).
©️ 2022 Copyright for this paper by its authors.
Use permitted under Creative Commons License Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0).
CEUR Workshop Proceedings (CEUR-WS.org)
Integrative Medicine and holding several world and international congresses of Integrative Medicine,
it can be argued that today Integrative Scientific Medicine is not a formed theoretical and applied
direction, its formation is only at its initial stage. A special difficulty is the process of integration of folk
medical systems with official (scientific) medicine, due to the fact that the vast majority of existing
unconventional (folk, traditional) medical fields do not have sufficient theoretical and experimental-
clinical justification, in particular, in evidence-based medicine, and also for folk medical systems there
are almost no modern information-analytical means for collecting, analyzing, systematizing, comparing
the results of diagnostic and therapeutic activities of relevant specialists (healers and therapists), there
are no information systems to support diagnostic and therapeutic decisions, relevant knowledge bases
and e-learning systems, which forms the skeptical attitude of the academic community towards them.
Solving these difficult science-intensive problems requires the development and implementation of
a series of comprehensive innovative research programs and technological developments for those folk
(unconventional) medical systems that claim to be part of the future of Integrative Scientific Medicine.
An example of such a research program is the International Research Program of Chinese Image
Medicine (CIM) for 2017-2023, implemented by the Beijing Medical Research Institute Kundawell
(China) [9]. The main goal of this research program is to create theoretical, experimental and
technological scientific foundations of CIM. As an important component of TCM, Chinese Image
Medicine, (origin from Chinese: 意象 医学 [Yi Xiang Yi Xue] - Yi Xiang Yi Xue 意 mind,
consciousness, 象 picture, image, 医 medicine, 学 science) - an integral system of knowledge and
diagnosis methods, therapy, rehabilitation and prevention, aimed at restoring the natural state of human
health, is the author's development of Professor Mintang Xu and is based on the systematization
(integration) and development of knowledge and traditional TCM methods, in particular, the methods
of ancient Chinese medicine Bien Chue schools, psychophysical methods and practices that exist in
China within the framework of Taoist, Buddhist and pre-religious traditions, trying to modernize them
and supplement them with modern scientific concepts of medicine, biology, psychology, informatics,
physics and adapt them to the modern person perception. At the present stage, CIM is in the stage of
active transformation of ancient methods and modern scientific research and is an innovative direction
in the development of Traditional Chinese Medicine [18]. CIM has received a powerful impetus to its
further development and active spread in more than 50 countries.
One of the important tasks of the International Research Program of Chinese Image Medicine is to
develop an integrated onto-oriented information-analytical environment of scientific researchers,
professional healing activities and e-learning of Chinese Image Medicine. This integrated information-
analytical environment will allow to eliminate potential obstacles to the formation of Integrative
Scientific Medicine, technologies standardization for providing quality medical care by methods of
CIM and is a necessary condition for conducting their comprehensive research at theoretical and applied
levels.
Given the onto-orientation of the integrated information-analytical environment, in order to ensure
a high level of semantic quality of representation and integration of knowledge in Integrative Scientific
Medicine, as well as in Chinese Image medicine as its promising component, in paper [15] the
axiomatic-deductive strategy of their organization is substantiated. Based on the axiomatic-deductive
strategy in paper [13], logical-structural models of representation and integration of knowledge from
different (conventional and non-conventional) medical systems within the framework of Integrative
Scientific Medicine have been developed. In order to clearly specify the knowledge about the methods
of diagnosis in CIM, in the environment of Protégé built a diagnostic ontology of CIM.
Building a diagnostic ontology of CIM is an important, but only the first step to develop a full-
fledged onto-oriented information system "Image Therapist", which is designed to collect, systematize,
comparative analysis and future additions, synthesis of diagnostic and therapeutic data obtained by CIM
methods and methods conventional (Western) medicine. In this context, an important next step is the
formalization of the diagnosis and diagnostic space of CIM for complete and adequate presentation of
diagnostic information obtained by CIM methods in onto-oriented information systems for Integrative
Scientific Medicine. This article is actually devoted to solving this problem.
2. Materials and methods
2.1. Diagnostic information types in the integrated information-analytical
environment for CIM
Figure 1 [14] presents the architecture of the information and analytical environment for CIM. The
purpose of the development of this environment is to ensure the effective organization and coordination
of the work of existing CIM therapists, CIM researchers, people who study CIM, as well as the creation
of modern intellectualized information tools and resources in the field of folk [8, 25, 29],
complementary and integrative medicine [2, 31, 32].
Figure 1: General architecture of integrated onto-oriented information-analytical environment
Diagnostic information about the patient in an integrated onto-oriented information-analytical
environment of scientific research, professional healing and e-learning of Chinese Image Medicine is
proposed to provide according to table 1 [13].
Table 1
Diagnostic information types in the integrated information-analytical environment of CIM
Personal information Self-assessment information (physical and
(age, gender, family members, etc.) psychological condition) of the patient before and
after therapy, using methods of psychological scaling
Medical information about the patient Diagnostic information obtained by TCM and CIM
includes information obtained by methods, namely, the results of diagnosis by TCM
methods of conventional (Western) (examination, listening, palpation diagnosis results),
medicine, namely, medical history and the results of energy diagnosis by hand and (or) body,
results of medical examinations the results of internal imaging ("Eye of the Mind",
(laboratory tests, results of functional "Second Heart"»)
diagnostics, doctor's report, etc.)
In particular, in the information system "Image Therapist" the generalized structure of the patient's
data can be divided into the following components (Fig. 2).
Figure 2: Generalized structure of patient data in the information system "Image Therapist"
2.2. Conceptual basis of diagnosis formation in CIM
Personal medical data of the patient obtained by conventional Western medicine (laboratory tests,
medical history, results of functional diagnostics, etc.) and information about the patient's self-rating
are not difficult to form. However, the formation of diagnostic information by CIM methods is difficult
scientific problem, the solution of which is possible by developing new mathematical models, methods
and means of presenting diagnostic information obtained by CIM methods.
The theory and technology of diagnosis in CIM are based on the traditional for TCM and Chinese
culture in general theory of reality and human, the conceptual model of which can be presented as a
system of eight interrelated concepts "Tao", "Emptiness", "Qi-substance", "Image", "Yin-Yang", "Jing-
Qi-Shen", "Earth-Human-Sky", "Wu Xing". All these traditional concepts of CIM can be combined into
a group of unary conceptual models - concepts whose core content is only one concept; binary
conceptual models - concepts, the essence of which is revealed through two mutually opposite and
complementary concepts; ternary conceptual models - concepts that have three meaningful
interconnected centers-concepts; as well as conceptual models of greater than 3 dimensions (n-ary
conceptual models (n> 3)). The group of unary conceptual models of the traditional theory of CIM
includes such concepts as "Tao", "Emptiness", "Qi-substance" and "Image". The group of binary
conceptual models includes the concept of "Yin-Yang", which is based on two mutually opposite and
complementary concepts "Yin" and "Yang". The group of ternary conceptual models includes such
concepts as "Jing-Qi-Shen", "Earth-Human-Sky ". The group of five-dimensional conceptual models
includes the concept of "Wu Xing", the content centers of which are the concepts of "Water", "Tree",
"Fire", "Earth" and "Metal" (see Figure 3).
Figure 3: Fundamental conceptual models of "Theory of Reality and Human in CIM"
Certain conceptual models of different dimensions correspond to certain ontological levels in the
traditional theory of CIM. Thus, in the theory of CIM there are five basic fundamental ontological levels
of reality and human, namely, the first most fundamental level is the level of "Emptiness", the second
is the level of "Yin-Yang", the third is the level of "Jing-Qi-Shen", which is divided into three
ontological sublevels - the level of "Jing", the level of "Qi" and the level of "Shen". It is established that
between the fundamental concepts of the theory of reality and man in CIM there is a relation of
generation "Tao - Emptiness - Yin / Yang - Earth-Human-Sky (Jing-Qi-Shen) - the set of all things".
This relationship reflects the generation of the connotation of a larger dimensional conceptual model
from the connotation of a smaller dimensional conceptual model (see Figure 4).
Figure 4: Extended cross-conceptual relationship between fundamental concepts in CIM
Evaluation of the patient's condition in CIM is performed at all five ontological levels using the
following diagnostic methods: palpation, pulse diagnostics, energy diagnostics (Qi-diagnostics) by
hand, energy and symptomatic diagnostics with the whole body, image diagnostics (diagnostics by the
method of "Eye of the Mind"), diagnostics by the method of "Second Heart" (see Figure 5). The result
of diagnosing in CIM is the formation of a set of sensations, images and conceptual knowledge in the
inner space of consciousness of CIM-therapist. In general, in the internal diagnostic space of the CIM-
specialist as a whole structure it is possible to distinguish its four aspects (projections), namely, sensory
projection (contains information about the patient's Qi state), image projection (contains information
about the patient's condition in the form of visual images), psycho-emotional projection (contains
information about the psycho-emotional state of the patient in the form of feelings or emotions) and
semantic projection (contains semantic interpretation of the received sensations, images, emotions and
feelings). The process of diagnosis in CIM is conditionally presented in Figure 5.
Figure 5: Conditional scheme of diagnosis in CIM
By their ontological and epistemological nature, these sensations, images, feelings and meanings
(interpretations) have both objective and purely subjective components, which have significant
variations, differences in different CIM-therapists. In addition, it is necessary to take into account the
irrational, intuitive, heuristic component of the process of making diagnostic decisions by a CIM-
specialist. Therefore, one of the main tasks in building a model of the CIM diagnostic space is to
separate (select) from the diagnostic information space of the CIM-specialist as a subject-object
integrity, its purely objective component, and to develop convenient for the CIM-specialist means of
objectification, unified presentation of important diagnostic information.
3. Results and discussion
Creation of diagnostic space X and diagnostic vector X∈X for CIM should be preceded by the
development of a diagnostic ontology O_D CIM (ontology of the theory and technologies of diagnosing
in CIM), which as its sub-ontology should include nosological ontology O_N CIM, topological
ontology O_T CIM, and ontology O_M methods of obtaining and specifying sensory-image diagnostic
information (ontology of diagnostic methods) in CIM, as well as an ontology O_S of diagnostic metrics
and scales in CIM (see Figure 6).
Figure 6: Conditional scheme of diagnostic vector formation in CIM
The diagnostic ontology of CIM can be presented as four of its sub-ontologies:
𝑂𝐷 = {𝑂𝑇 , 𝑂𝑁 , 𝑂𝑀 , 𝑂𝑆 }, (1)
Topological ontology 𝑂𝑇 CIM displays information about the topological localization of diseases.
Given the presence of many ontological existence levels of human diseases in the theory of CIM,
the topological diagnostic ontology of CIM can be presented as a set of its topological diagnostic sub-
ontologies that correspond to the accepted in the theory of CIM ontological levels (a total of 5
ontological levels), in particular, anatomical (physical) topological ontology 𝑂𝑇𝑓 physical human body,
topological ontology 𝑂𝑇𝑒 energy-field system ("Qi" system, acupuncture system) of human, ontology
𝑂𝑇𝑖 information (psycho-mental-spiritual) human system. That is, these three topological ontologies
𝑂𝑇𝑓 , 𝑂𝑇𝑒 , 𝑂𝑇𝑖 can be considered as one topological ontology 𝛺𝑇 , which consists of them, namely:
𝑂Т = {𝑂𝑇𝑓 , 𝑂𝑇𝑒 , 𝑂𝑇𝑖 } (2)
The creation of these ontologies is a rather difficult task and it requires additional thorough research.
Some issues of ontological modeling are considered in [14].
In addition, it should be noted that in the CIM energy and human information systems have a certain
kind of projection on the physical human body, namely, their components are associated with the
corresponding anatomical components of the physical body. Therefore, given this connection, it is
possible to build a topological ontology (taxonomy) of CIM only on the basis of one anatomical
ontology (taxonomy) 𝑂𝑇𝑓 of the human physical body, attributing to each element of the glossary of
this ontology the appropriate type of disease at the physical, energy and information levels. It should
also be noted that a topological ontology can be represented as a sequence of included topological
ontologies 𝑂𝑇1 ⊂ 𝑂𝑇1 ⊂. . . ⊂ 𝑂𝑇𝑘 with varying degrees of topological detailing, reflecting the
hierarchical organized set of inserted partitions of the human body image into sections (parts of the
human body, organ systems, individual organs and organ sections).
Also, the topological ontology should contain information not only about the human body parts, but
also information about the relationships between them, which at the formal mathematical level are a set
of relationships between elements of topological ontology.
Nosological ontology ontology 𝑂𝑁 CIM reflects knowledge of the diseases types (classes) that are
accepted in the diagnostic theory of CIM and built in accordance with generally accepted technologies
for developing ontologies [10, 19, 20] using the environment Protégé [16, 17, 26].
Ontology 𝑂𝑀 diagnosing methods in CIM reflects knowledge of obtaining methods and specifying
sensory-diagnostic information in CIM. Diagnostic methods are the basis for perception and
identification (characterization) of the patient's condition in terms of nosological ontology of CIM.
There are many diagnostic methods associated with each nosological class of CIM, on the basis of
which information can be obtained that is sufficient to assign the patient's condition to this nosological
class. Therefore, it seems appropriate to indicate which method or set of methods of diagnosing CIM-
therapist used to make his chosen diagnosis. It is also necessary to indicate what feelings, images,
emotions from the predetermined (created) taxonomy of psycho-mental-spiritual states of the CIM-
specialist were present in his mind and were interpreted by him as appropriate nosological signs.
Taxonomy nodes of psycho-mental-spiritual states of the CIM-specialist, which represent the possible
states of the patient during his diagnosis by CIM-methods, belong to the set consisting of the subset
"Feelings", "Images", "Emotions (feelings)", "Desires (wills)","Meanings (knowledge, interpretation)".
Ontology 𝑂𝑆 of diagnostic metrics and scales in CIM describes the quantitative characteristics
(indicators) of the diagnostic space of CIM, which determine the disease manifestation degree and can
be set to a certain numerical (for example, from 1 to 5) or non-numerical (for example, very weak,
weak, medium, strong, very strong) scale.
Consider in more detail the general structural features of the above ontologies, moreover to simplify
the presentation and understanding of the material, we will assume that these ontologies are taxonomies.
In this case, we will have a diseases taxonomy (nosological taxonomy) in CIM, which will be presented
as a pair:
𝑂𝑁 = ⟨𝛺𝑁 , ⊂⟩, (3)
where 𝛺𝑁 is a set of diseases types in CIM, which is the corresponding glossary of diseases in the CIM
theory, and relation “⊂” is a relation of strict inclusion that takes place between the elements (concepts)
of the glossary 𝛺𝑁 . As an example, Figure 7 shows a fragment of the CIM nosological taxonomy.
Figure 7: A fragment of the CIM nosological taxonomy
Topological taxonomies will accordingly be presented as such pairs:
𝑂𝑇𝑓 = ⟨𝛺𝑇𝑓 , ⊂⟩, 𝑂𝑇𝑒 = ⟨𝛺𝑇𝑒 , ⊂⟩, 𝑂𝑇𝑖 = ⟨𝛺𝑇𝑖 , ⊂⟩, (4)
where 𝛺𝑇𝑓 is a set of types of anatomical divisions (parts of a body, organs, fabrics) of a human
physical body; set 𝛺𝑇𝑒 is a set of components (bioactive points, collaterals, energy channels, energy
centers) of the human energy system; set 𝛺𝑇𝑖 is a set of components (communication links between
organs, psycho-mental elements) of the human information system. In all the above topological
taxonomies of the relation “⊂” is a strict inclusion relation that occurs between the corresponding
classes of the corresponding sets 𝛺𝑇𝑓 , 𝛺𝑇𝑒 , 𝛺𝑇𝑖 . As an example, Figure 8 shows a fragment of the
anatomical taxonomy of the human physical body.
Figure 8: A fragment of the topological anatomical taxonomy of the human physical body in CIM
Diagnostic methods taxonomy will be presented as a pair:
𝑂𝑀 = ⟨𝛺𝑀 , ⊂⟩, (5)
where 𝛺𝑀 is a glossary of diagnostic methods in CIM, and relation “⊂” is a relation of strict inclusion
that takes place between the elements (concepts) of the glossary 𝛺𝑀 .
A taxonomy of metrics and diagnostic scales will be presented as a pair:
𝑂𝑆 = 〈𝛺𝑆 , >〉, (6)
where 𝛺𝑆 is a glossary of metrics and relevant scales for assessing the manifestation degree of the
corresponding nosological unit in diagnosed patients by CIM methods, and attitude “>” is a comparison
ratio that takes place between the elements (concepts) of the glossary 𝛺𝑆 .
As an example, Figure 9 shows a fragment of CIM diagnostic methods taxonomy and taxonomy of
metrics and diagnostic scales.
Figure 9: A fragment of the CIM diagnostic methods taxonomy and taxonomy of metrics and diagnostic
scales
Information on the components of the diagnostic ontology of CIM is grouped in table 2.
Table 2
Components of the CIM diagnostic ontology
Components of the CIM Components description of the diagnostic CIM ontology
diagnostic ontology
TOPOLOGICAL Topological ontology CIM reflects information on the topological
ONTOLOGY CIM localization of diseases involving the physical body, energy system
(field system, Qi system) and information systems (psycho-mental-
spiritual system, Shen system) of human, in particular, contains
information about body parts, organs , physical body tissues ,
information about bioactive points and energy channels of the human
energy system, information about informational, psycho-emotional,
mental and spiritual topological aspects of man.
NOSOLOGICAL Nosological ontology of CIM reflects knowledge about types (classes)
ONTOLOGY CIM of diseases which are accepted in the CIM diagnostic theory
ONTOLOGY OF The ontology of diagnostic methods in CIM reflects knowledge about
DIAGNOSIS METHODS OF methods (channels) of receiving and specifications of sensory-image
CIM diagnostic information in CIM.
ONTOLOGY OF Describes the quantitative characteristics (indicators) of the diagnostic
DIAGNOSTIC METRICS space of CIM, which determine the disease manifestation degree and
AND SCALES IN CIM can be set to a certain numerical or non-numerical scale.
At the most abstract level, the diagnostic space can be represented as a set of all possible diagnoses
in the CIM, and each individual diagnosis will be presented as a result of design according to a certain
procedure 𝐹(∙) from the ontologies described above. In this case, the CIM diagnostic space is a function
of the ontologies 𝑂𝑇 , 𝑂𝑁 , 𝑂𝑀 , 𝑂𝑆 , namely:
𝑋 = 𝐹(𝑂𝑇 , 𝑂𝑁 , 𝑂𝑀 , 𝑂𝑆 ), (7)
where 𝐹(∙) - a certain type of method (algorithm, procedure) formation of the diagnosis in CIM from
the corresponding ontologies 𝑂𝑇 , 𝑂𝑁 , 𝑂𝑀 , 𝑂𝑆 .
The creation of the above ontologies (taxonomies) is the first step in building a model of the
diagnoses and diagnostic space of CIM. The next research stage is to build a procedure for forming a
diagnoses and diagnostic space from nosological ontology in CIM, topological ontology, ontology of
diagnostic methods and ontology of metrics and scales in CIM.
The taxonomy can be graphically represented as an ordered root tree, the nodes of which are
glossary-concept classes, and the edges will reflect the inclusion ratio. This method of graphical
taxonomies representation is often used in ontology development environments. For convenience CIM
diagnostic space formation from the above taxonomic trees it is necessary to carry out coding of their
tops. We will use this principle of coding nodes of taxonomic trees. Each taxonomic tree is assigned a
serial number n_0 from 1 to 4. For example, to ontology 𝑂𝑇 is assigned number 1 ((𝑛0 = 1), to ontology
𝑂𝑁 is assigned number 2 (𝑛0 = 2), to ontology 𝑂𝑀 is assigned number 3, and to ontology 𝑂𝑆 is assigned
number 4. The upper node (root) of the taxonomic tree will be denoted by a number equal to the ordinal
number of the corresponding taxonomic tree (corresponding ontology). Each level of a taxonomic tree
is encoded by an integer equal to the number of its appearance in the direction from the top (root) of
the tree to its branches. In general, k-th level of a taxonomic tree with a serial number n_0 is presented
as a combination of numbers separated by a period 𝑛0 . 𝑘1 . , … , . 𝑘𝑖 , where the first component displays
the ordinal number of the taxonomic tree, and i displays the ordinal number of the level in this
taxonomic tree [23]. For any node, the last digit indicates its sequence number at this level from its
ancestor, and all previous digits indicate the ancestor node. Figure 10 shows an example of coding
taxonomic tree nodes according to the above approach.
Figure 10: Coding example of taxonomic tree nodes for CIM
Based on the above, we create a procedure for forming a vector 𝑋 = (𝑥1 , 𝑥2 , … , 𝑥𝑁 ) information
diagnostic space X Chinese Image Medicine, which is a unified formalized representation of the
diagnosis by CIM methods. Each i-th component x_i of vector 𝑋 = (𝑥1 , 𝑥2 , … , 𝑥𝑁 )reflects the detected
by the CIM-therapist deviation from the norm in the physical system, energy system and information
system of the diagnosed patient. The total number of N components of the diagnostic vector 𝑋 =
(𝑥1 , 𝑥2 , … , 𝑥𝑁 ) for each patient, in general, will be different, because it is the number of detected by the
CIM-specialist deviations (diseases, pathogenic factors) in a particular patient, which are presented in
terms of constructed taxonomies of CIM.
In general, i-th component 𝑥𝑖 of vector 𝑋 = (𝑥1 , 𝑥2 , … , 𝑥𝑁 ) is four formal objects:
𝑥𝑖 = ⟨(𝑛𝑂𝑇 . 𝑘1 . , … , . 𝑘𝑗1 ) , (𝑛𝑂𝑁 . 𝑙1 . , … , . 𝑙𝑗2 ) , (𝑛𝑂𝑀 . 𝑔1 . , … , . 𝑔𝑗3 ) , 𝑚𝑖 ⟩ , 𝑖 = 1, 𝑁, (8)
𝑖 𝑖 𝑖
where 𝑗1 , 𝑗2 , 𝑗3 – ordinal numbers of the levels of the corresponding taxonomic trees from ontologies
𝑂𝑇 , 𝑂𝑁 , 𝑂𝑀 , which are generally different for different i-th component 𝑥𝑖 ; 𝑛𝑂𝑇 . 𝑘1 . , … , . 𝑘𝑗1 – node
ordinal number of the topological taxonomic tree of 𝑂𝑇 ; 𝑛𝑂𝑁 . 𝑙1 . , … , . 𝑙𝑗2 – node ordinal number of the
nosological taxonomic tree of 𝑂𝑁 ; 𝑛𝑂𝑀 . 𝑔1 . , … , . 𝑔𝑗3 – node ordinal number of the taxonomic tree of 𝑂𝑀 ;
𝑚𝑖 1,5 – a natural number that can take values from 1 to 5 and characterizes the manifestation degree
of the disease (deviation from the norm, pathogenic factor) (in the absence of deviations from the norm
number 𝑚𝑖 = 0, larger value 𝑚𝑖 indicates a greater manifestation degree of the disease). You can
provide the following numerical scale interpretation of the disease manifestation degree: 1 – very weak,
2 – weak, 3 – medium (moderate), 4 – strong, 5 – very strong. Figure 11 shows an example of the
formation of i-th component 𝑥𝑖 of a diagnostic vector according to the above approach.
1(ОТ) 2(ОN) 3(ОM) 4(ОS)
3.3
1.1 2.1 2.2 3.1 3.2
4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5
2.2.1 2.2.2 3.3.1 3.3.2
Figure 11: Procedure for forming of i-th component x_i of a diagnostic vector for CIM
Figure 11, for example, presents simplified fragments of ontologies 𝑂𝑇 , 𝑂𝑁 , 𝑂𝑀 , 𝑂𝑆 , and the dashed
line connects the nodes that were selected in the diagnostic process. Thus, the i-th component 𝑥𝑖 of 𝑋 =
(𝑥1 , 𝑥2 , … , 𝑥𝑁 ) information diagnostic space X of Chinese Image Medicine for this example will be
displayed as 𝑥𝑖 = ⟨1.1,2.2.1,3.3,4.1⟩.
Figure 12 shows generalized block diagram of the formation algorithm of the diagnostic vector 𝑋 =
(𝑥1 , 𝑥2 , … , 𝑥𝑁 ) of Chinese Image Medicine.
Figure 12: Generalized block diagram of the formation algorithm of the diagnostic vector
X=(x_1,x_2,…,x_N ) of CIM
Thus, the diagnostic space X contains both qualitative and quantitative characteristics (indicators),
which in their entirety holistically characterize the patient's condition by CIM methods. Qualitative
characteristics are contained in CIM ontologies, and quantitative ones determine the manifestation
degree of a disease and can be set on a certain numerical (for example, from 1 to 5) or non-numerical
(for example, very weak, weak, medium, strong, very strong) scale. Any vector (other than zero) from
space X indicates the presence of a certain type of disease in the patient, which are detected by CIM
methods.
The mathematical structure developed above is the basis for the formalization of the diagnosis X
and diagnostic space X of Chinese Image Medicine with the aim of its unified presentation in the onto-
oriented system of professional healing activities "Image Therapist", which enabled the accumulation
of clinical data obtained by the methods of Chinese Image Medicine for the purpose of their objective
comprehensive analysis with the involvement of modern intellectualized information technologies.
In figures 13 and 14 show screenshots of the prototype information system "Image Therapist",
developed on the basis of the above approaches. The formation of the diagnostic vector occurs by
selecting the values of the fields (elements of the diagnostic ontology) on the appropriate screen form.
The system implements convenient means of presenting diagnostic information about the patient's
condition, which are shown in table 1, the advantage of the environment is the ability to enter both
information obtained by conventional medicine and information obtained by Chinese Image Medicine,
which allows them to conduct a comparative analysis.
Figure 13: Patient medical card of the System «Image Therapist»
Figure 14: Window with CIM-diagnostic information
4. Conclusions
The paper develops a mathematical structure of vector type, which describes and formalizes the
diagnosis and CIM diagnostic space for complete and adequate presentation of diagnostic information
obtained by CIM methods in onto-oriented information systems "Image Therapist" as an important
component of integrated onto-oriented information-analytical environment. Qualitative and quantitative
characteristics contained in the mathematical model of the diagnostic space, holistically characterize
the patient's condition by CIM methods including physical, energy, informational aspects. These results
are based on previously created nosological ontology, topological ontology, ontology of diagnostic
methods in CIM and ontology of diagnostic metrics and scales in CIM, and made it possible to develop
a unified method of formalized presentation of diagnostic information obtained by CIM methods in
order to accumulate clinical data for their objective analysis with the use of modern intellectualized
information technologies.
Such an approach with minor adaptations can be extended to develop a formalized description of
diagnoses and diagnostic spaces for other folk medical systems, which will allow the creation of
information-oriented systems for Integrative Scientific Medicine, and in the future will allow to develop
effective clinically-based synthetic methods of diagnosis and therapy, which harmonically combine
(complement) the achievements of conventional and folk medical systems into a single metamedical
system. Also, in further research, for the convenience of forming a diagnostic vector of the patient's
condition by CIM methods it is appropriate to develop an interactive visual environment based on an
image model of the human body and its parts, including physical, energy, informational aspects.
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