Methodological Review: HCLS 2.0/3.0: Health care and life sciences data mashup using Web 2.0/3.0

  • Authors:

  • Kei-Hoi Cheung;Kevin Y. Yip;Jeffrey P. Townsend;Matthew Scotch

  • Affiliations:

  • Center for Medical Informatics, Yale University, 300 George Street, Suite 501, New Haven, CT 06511, USA;Department of Computer Science, Yale University, USA;Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, Yale University, USA;Center for Medical Informatics, Yale University, 300 George Street, Suite 501, New Haven, CT 06511, USA

  • Venue:
  • Journal of Biomedical Informatics
  • Year:
  • 2008

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Abstract

We describe the potential of current Web 2.0 technologies to achieve data mashup in the health care and life sciences (HCLS) domains, and compare that potential to the nascent trend of performing semantic mashup. After providing an overview of Web 2.0, we demonstrate two scenarios of data mashup, facilitated by the following Web 2.0 tools and sites: Yahoo! Pipes, Dapper, Google Maps and GeoCommons. In the first scenario, we exploited Dapper and Yahoo! Pipes to implement a challenging data integration task in the context of DNA microarray research. In the second scenario, we exploited Yahoo! Pipes, Google Maps, and GeoCommons to create a geographic information system (GIS) interface that allows visualization and integration of diverse categories of public health data, including cancer incidence and pollution prevalence data. Based on these two scenarios, we discuss the strengths and weaknesses of these Web 2.0 mashup technologies. We then describe Semantic Web, the mainstream Web 3.0 technology that enables more powerful data integration over the Web. We discuss the areas of intersection of Web 2.0 and Semantic Web, and describe the potential benefits that can be brought to HCLS research by combining these two sets of technologies.