Applications

The dREAMS knowledge base has the potential to support a range of applications, including:

Diagnosis

• dReams can provide a set of reference findings from patients in the collection with specified syndromes. A patient’s findings can be compared with this reference set.
• By specifying a syndrome, all the findings for patients with the syndrome can be found. Example radiographs of these patients can be examined.
• It is possible to compare a set of patient findings with a set of candidate dysplasias.

Teaching

• dREAMS uses open standards, allowing it to be used with a variety of Open Source search tools. These include data browsing tools allowing features to be explored, and how they relate to syndromes.
• The availability of high quality radigraphic images makes it possible to explore radiological usage of qualitative terms – such as the difference between mild and severe, or how and when to use the terms stippled and fragmented.
• Links to external resources such as OMIM and HPO offer access to up to date information, including abstracts and bibliographic resources.

Research

• dREAMS supports the investigation of relationships between existing radiological data and the scientific data collected during laboratory experiments.
• Links with external bioinformatic resources are provided, such as OMIM and the Foundational Model of Anatomy, allowing dREAMS to be explored in the context of other knowledge bases.
• It is straightforward to extract data from dREAMS for cluster analysis, for example when investigating a phenotype with unknown genotype.