Linked Data for Citizen-Centric Care Spyros KOTOULAS a,1 , Walter SEDLAZEK b , Vanessa LOPEZ a , Marco SBODIO a , Martin STEPHENSON a , Pierpaolo TOMMASI a and Pol MAC AONGHUSA a a IBM Research b IBM C´ uram Abstract. Comprehensive Care requires comprehensive visibility on the strengths and vulnerabilities of individuals and populations. The systems involved in Care are numerous and heterogeneous, span very broad domains, such as Social Care, Healthcare and Public Safety, and draw on specialist knowledge from many disci- plines. We present a system, based on Linked Data technologies, taking first steps in making this cross-domain information accessible and fit-for-use, using minimal structure and open vocabularies. We evaluate our system through user studies. Keywords. Care Coordination, Smarter Care, Information Sharing, Integration Introduction Care is facing unique challenges: Aligning care delivery to population needs, cre- ating and managing holistic, person-centered care plans, care coordination to produce positive and sustainable outcomes at reduced cost. In [1] it is reported that 5% of individ- uals account for 50% of the costs. Identifying these individuals is key to reducing costs. The importance of social determinants for health dictates that multi-domain information is key to developing holistic and individualized care delivery [3]. Coordination across care agencies and other stakeholders requires an integrated view of the individual, their vulnerabilities and key aspects of their environment [2]. The common denominator is the need for complex and fit-for-use information span- ning multiple domains. The number and varying types of organizations involved, the complexity of the domains and the sensitivity of the information give rise to unique tech- nical challenges. In the US, the number of hospitals registered with the American Hos- pital Association is 5724 2 and the number of homeless shelters surpasses 4000 3 . The complexity of Healthcare data is vast and Social Care systems have a very broad scope. Relevant use-cases are abundant: In a New York hospital, a survey has shown that 9.2 minutes out of a 15-minute doctors visit were spent on social needs [5], crowding out clinical care, illustrating that “social context” of individuals is critical in improv- ing care (e.g. consider prescribing for an individual with a drug dealing conviction or care planning for people in communities facing significant deprivation). A single social worker may be responsible for thousands of people [5]. Providing timely, concise, rele- vant, multi-dimensional and fit-for-purpose information about vulnerability of individu- 1 Corresponding Author: Spyros Kotoulas, IBM Technology Centre, Dublin 15, Ireland; E-mail: spyros.kotoulas@ie.ibm.com. 2 http://www.aha.org/research/rc/stat-studies/fast-facts.shtml, retrieved 19/04/2013 3 http://www.shelterlistings.org/