Please cite this article in press as: Machno A, et al. Ontology for assessment studies of human–computer-interaction in surgery. Artif Intell Med (2015), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.artmed.2014.12.011 ARTICLE IN PRESS G Model ARTMED-1384; No. of Pages 12 Artificial Intelligence in Medicine xxx (2015) xxx–xxx Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Artificial Intelligence in Medicine j o ur na l ho mepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/aiim Ontology for assessment studies of human–computer-interaction in surgery Andrej Machno a,d,* , Pierre Jannin b , Olivier Dameron c , Werner Korb d , Gerik Scheuermann e , Jürgen Meixensberger a,f a Innovation Center Computer Assisted Surgery, Universität Leipzig, Faculty of Medicine, Semmelweisstraße 14, Haus 14, 04103 Leipzig, Germany b Modélisation des connaissances et procédures chirurgicales et interventionnelles, Institut national de la santé et de la recherche médicale, U1099/Laboratoire Traitement du Signal et de L’Image, University of Rennes, Rue de Tolbiac 101, 75654 Paris, France c Institut national de la santé et de la recherche médicale, U936, University of Rennes, Rue de Tolbiac 101, 75654 Paris, France d Innovative Surgical Training Technologies, University of Applied Sciences Leipzig, Eilenburger Str. 13, 04317 Leipzig, Germany e Institute for Computer Science, Universität Leipzig, Augustusplatz 10, 04103 Leipzig, Germany f Klinik und Poliklinik für Neurochirurgie, Universitätsklinikum Leipzig AöR, Liebigstraße 20, Haus 4, 04103 Leipzig, Germany a r t i c l e i n f o Article history: Received 28 March 2013 Received in revised form 23 November 2014 Accepted 5 December 2014 Keywords: Human–computer-interaction Automation consequences Ontology Surgery a b s t r a c t Objective: New technologies improve modern medicine, but may result in unwanted consequences. Some occur due to inadequate human–computer-interactions (HCI). To assess these consequences, an inves- tigation model was developed to facilitate the planning, implementation and documentation of studies for HCI in surgery. Methods and material: The investigation model was formalized in Unified Modeling Language and imple- mented as an ontology. Four different top-level ontologies were compared: Object-Centered High-level Reference, Basic Formal Ontology, General Formal Ontology (GFO) and Descriptive Ontology for Linguis- tic and Cognitive Engineering, according to the three major requirements of the investigation model: the domain-specific view, the experimental scenario and the representation of fundamental relations. Furthermore, this article emphasizes the distinction of “information model” and “model of meaning” and shows the advantages of implementing the model in an ontology rather than in a database. Results: The results of the comparison show that GFO fits the defined requirements adequately: the domain-specific view and the fundamental relations can be implemented directly, only the representa- tion of the experimental scenario requires minor extensions. The other candidates require wide-ranging extensions, concerning at least one of the major implementation requirements. Therefore, the GFO was selected to realize an appropriate implementation of the developed investigation model. The ensuing development considered the concrete implementation of further model aspects and entities: sub-domains, space and time, processes, properties, relations and functions. Conclusions: The investigation model and its ontological implementation provide a modular guideline for study planning, implementation and documentation within the area of HCI research in surgery. This guideline helps to navigate through the whole study process in the form of a kind of standard or good clinical practice, based on the involved foundational frameworks. Furthermore, it allows to acquire the structured description of the applied assessment methods within a certain surgical domain and to consider this information for own study design or to perform a comparison of different studies. The inves- tigation model and the corresponding ontology can be used further to create new knowledge bases of HCI assessment in surgery. © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. * Corresponding author at: ISTT, Eilenburger Str. 13, 04317 Leipzig, Germany. Tel.: +49 341 30763105; fax: +49 341 3076 853105. E-mail address: machno@istt.htwk-leipzig.de (A. Machno). 1. Introduction Automation plays a key role in high performance activities such as surgery up to the point when the human and the machine form an inextricable unit [1,2]. Automation is defined as a device or system that accomplishes (partially or in full) a function that was http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.artmed.2014.12.011 0933-3657/© 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.