A Surveillance Infrastructure for Malaria Analytics: Provisioning Data Access and Preservation of Interoperability

TL;DR

The paper presents SIEMA, a semantic web-based platform for malaria data access and interoperability, with automated change detection and service rebuilding to support continuous surveillance activities.

Contribution

It introduces a novel platform combining semantic web services, automated change detection, and a user interface for maintaining malaria data interoperability.

Findings

Successfully implemented a prototype platform for malaria data integration.

Demonstrated automated detection of terminology and service changes.

Enabled minimal technical skill queries for malaria surveillance data.

Abstract

We propose the Semantics, Interoperability, and Evolution for Malaria Analytics (SIEMA) platform for use in malaria surveillance based on semantic data federation. Using this approach, it is possible to access distributed data, extend and preserve interoperability between multiple dynamic distributed malaria sources, and facilitate detection of system changes that can interrupt mission-critical global surveillance activities. We used Semantic Automated Discovery and Integration (SADI) Semantic Web Services to enable data access and improve interoperability, and the graphical user interface-enabled semantic query engine HYDRA to implement the target queries typical of malaria programs. We implemented a custom algorithm to detect changes to community-developed terminologies, data sources, and services that are core to SIEMA. This algorithm reports to a dashboard. Valet SADI is used to mitigate the impact of changes by rebuilding affected services. We developed a prototype surveillance and change management platform from a combination of third-party tools, community-developed terminologies, and custom algorithms. We illustrated a methodology and core infrastructure to facilitate interoperable access to distributed data sources using SADI Semantic Web services. This degree of access makes it possible to implement complex queries needed by our user community with minimal technical skill. We implemented a dashboard that reports on terminology changes that can render the services inactive, jeopardizing system interoperability. Using this information, end users can control and reactively rebuild services to preserve interoperability and minimize service downtime.