The ISO/HL7 27931:2009 standard intends to establish a global interoperability framework for healthcare applications. However, being a messaging related protocol, it lacks a semantic foundation for interoperability at a machine treatable level intended through the Semantic Web. There is no alignment between the HL7 V2.xml message payloads and a meaning service like a suitable ontology. Careful application of Semantic Web tools and concepts can ease the path to the fundamental concept of Shared Semantics. In this chapter, the Semantic Web and Artificial Intelligence tools and techniques that allow aligned ontology population are presented and their applicability discussed. The authors present the coverage of HL7 RIM inadequacy for ontology mapping and how to circumvent it, NLP techniques for semi-automated ontology population, and the current trends about knowledge representation and reasoning that concur to the proposed achievement.
