1. Linked Data
Introduction
“I’m encouraged by what actually can be done to improve
the research and commercial utility of information.”
Here’s an intro to why …
Kerstin Forsberg
AstraZeneca R&D, Sweden

2. Web of Documents
Web 3.0
Web of (Linked) Data An Intro To The Semantic Web: Why You Need To Know
About It Sooner Than Later , by Samantha Wong
Image Source: Frederic Martin
Linked Data Introduction
2

3. Linking Open Data (LOD) cloud
Two Forerunners: UK and US Government
http://data.gov/
http://data.gov.uk/
The Linking Open Data
Linked Data Introduction cloud diagram
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4. Linking Open Data (LOD) cloud
Linked Data ClinicalTrial.gov
Global Identifier (URI) for a AZ study
http://data.linkedct.org/resource/trial/NCT00755378
48 RDF Triples
Linked Data Introduction
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5. 4 Principles for Linked Data …
… and 5 stars for Linked Open Data
1. Use URIs (Uniform Resource Identifiers)
as names for things.
2. Use HTTP URIs so that people can look
up (dereference) those names.
3. When someone looks up a URI, provide
useful information.
4. Include links to other URIs so that they
can discover more things.
Source: Linked Open Data star scheme by example
More resources introducing and describing the Linked Data idea
Linked Data Introduction
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6. Linked Enterprise Data
Source: What does Open Data mean for Enterprises?
More resources introducing and describing the Linked Data idea
Linked Data Introduction
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7. “Linked R&D Data”
Examples of Building Blocks
• Global identifier (URI) scheme for AZ entities
(e.g. people, projects, studies, drugs)
• Recommended biomedical ontologies and
basic vocabularies to provide context
(semantic and provenance) to data
• Dataset Catalogue
From the AZ RDI report: “Persistent URIs and Linked Data “
ordered by Mike Westaway
Linked Data Introduction
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8. I’m encouraged by …
• … what actually can be done by applying
Linked Data principles, together with a
stepwise implementation and pragmatic
application of crucial building blocks, to … Health Care and Life Sciences (HCLS)
Interest Group
Linking Open Drug Data
• … improve the research and commercial
utility of information
• Organized for associations
• Prepared for not yet defined use EU project The Large Knowledge Collider
Linked Life Data
• Ready for automation where computers
A 2-page summary of our learnings from
can function alongside us to participating in these external projects:
• Mitigate the complexity in discovering, Linked Data in Pharma, 2011, Bo Andersson
and Kerstin Forsberg
accessing, connecting and interpreting
information
• Improve the productivity in managing
information
Linked Data Introduction
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9. Extras
• One example
- Spending Data in UK
• Two things to remember
- RDF Triples
- Global Identifiers (URIs)
• Scenarios
• Linked Clinical Study Metadata
• Linked Patient Data in a Clinical Study
Linked Data Introduction (Extras)
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10. One example
Spending Data in UK
From the Linking Open Data cloud
A Payment from Lichfield District
Council, one local authority in the UK.
Globally identified by a URI
http://spending.lichfielddc.gov.uk/spend/8605670
Linked Data Introduction (Extras) Linked Spending Data –
10 How and Why Bother
Kerstin Forsberg CDISC Interchange Europe 2011 eHR and the World Beyond

11. Two things to remember
RDF Triples
Resource
Description subject predicat object
Framework
Example from a text book
The sky has the color blue
Example from the Spending data example in UK
Payment number 8605670 Net Amount 120.00
Payment number 8605670 Type Expenditure Line
Payment number 8605670 Payer Lichfield District Council
Lichfield District Council Type Local Authority
Triples for the standards that provides the semantics
The property Net Amount comment “The net amount of the payment.
This is the effective cost to the
payer after any reclaimable tax
has been deducted.”
The class Expenditure Line subclass of Observation in a multi-dimensional
Linked Data Introduction (Extras)
data cube for statistics
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12. Two things to remember
Global Identifiers
Uniform
Resource
Identifier
URI
Examples of Identifiers for “things” in Spending data example
http://spending.lichfielddc.gov.uk/spend/8605670
http://statistics.data.gov.uk/id/local-authority/41UD
Examples of Identifiers for “types of things” / “standards for things”
http://statistics.data.gov.uk/def/administrative-geography/LocalAuthority
http://reference.data.gov.uk/def/payment#ExpenditureLine
http://reference.data.gov.uk/def/payment#netAmount
http://purl.org/linked-data/cube#Observation
Linked Data Introduction (Extras)
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13. One example – “under the hood”
Live view using the Web Data Inspector
2 of 10 RDF Triples
Linked Data Introduction (Extras)
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Kerstin Forsberg CDISC Interchange Europe 2011 eHR and the World Beyond

14. One example – with a top-down approach to
standardization of the semantics
The Payment Ontology
Live view using the Web Data Inspector
Linked Data Introduction (Extras)
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Kerstin Forsberg CDISC Interchange Europe 2011 eHR and the World Beyond

15. UK government: Top-down approach to
standardization for Spending Data
Statistical Data perspective
Linked Data Cube Vocabulary
Presentation:
Statistical Data in RDF
The RDF Data Cube
vocabulary
Payment Ontology
Guide to the
Payments Ontology
Linked Data Introduction (Extras)
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Kerstin Forsberg CDISC Interchange Europe 2011 eHR and the World Beyond

16. Scenario: Linked Clinical Study Metadata
http://clinical.reference.astrazenenca.com/DI/SIZE#LARGE
Internal
categorization to
http://reference.cdisc.org/ct/sdtm/TSPARAMCD#ROUTE
support Design &
Interpretation
decisions
http://clinial.data.astrazeneca.com/id/study/D8180C00011
owl:sameAs
http://data.linkedct.org/resource/trial/NCT00755378
What would we like to
What would we like internal the
see on a to see as
linked data description of it?
webpage
presenting linked data
describing a clinical
study?
16 Linked Data Introduction (Extras)
Kerstin Forsberg CDISC Interchange Europe 2011 eHR and the World Beyond

17. Scenario
Linked Patient Data in a Clinical Study
• If each AZ clinical study had a global identifier/URI (could be something like this
http://data.astrazenenca.com/id/clinicalstudy/D8180C00011/ similar to what exist already
today for studies in ClinicalTrial.gov e.g. http://data.linkedct.org/resource/trial/NCT00755378
• If each identified Observation in a clinical study dataset delivered to AZ had a global
identifier, e.g. http://data.astrazenenca.com/data/observation/D8180C00011/20000034
• If each individual Observation via a RDF triple linked to its global identified test procedure,
similar to what exists today for CDISC’s SDTM submission values e.g. hemoglobin
measurement http://linkedlifedata.com/resource/umls/id/C051801
• If each individual Observation via a RDF triple linked to contextual information, similar to what
exists today for CDISC’s SDTM submission values for e.g.
http://linkedlifedata.com/resource/umls/id/C0038846 - prefLabel ‘Supine Position’. (Hopefully,
CDISC, together with NCI, will in the future publish their standards in a similar way to make it
easier to link clinical data.)
• If each identified Observation also was delivered with its provenance information, for example
two RDF triples expressing references to the identified measurement device and to the SOP
document being used. For more details see the provenance vocabulary
http://trdf.sourceforge.net/provenance/ns.htm
17 Linked Data Introduction (Extras)