WEB-BASED EXPLORATION OF TEMPORAL DATA IN BIOMEDICINE
Martin J. O’Connor, Mike Bingen, Amanda Richards, Samson W. Tu, Amar K. Das · 2011
A growing number of biomedical researchers must analyze complex patterns in time-course or longitudinal data. Researchers commonly use Excel, SAS or custom programs to query for relevant patterns in their data. However, these approaches typically entail low-level method development. Analyses are tailored to a specific data set and research question, and they cannot be easily modified or shared. As a result, there is a need for tools to facilitate the specification of temporal analyses at a high level. Such tools would hasten the development process and produce reusable methods. We have developed a web-based application called SWEETInfo to meet this need. Investigators can use it to collaboratively manipulate, explore, and visualize temporal data. Our tool combines semantic web technologies such as OWL and SWRL with a variety of standard web technologies. SWEETInfo can generate complex temporal analyses interactively. It also supports publication of descriptions of analyses, and allows them to be easily shared with others and adapted by them. We evaluated this tool by replicating a longitudinal study of drug effectiveness for HIV anti-retroviral therapy.