ABSTRACT
Data consist of facts. Facts are observations or measurements about the world. For example, ‘today is Tuesday’, the ‘blood pressure is 125/70 mm Hg’ or ‘this drug is penicillin’.
Knowledge defines relationships between data. The statement ‘penicillin is an antibiotic’ relates two data elements. The rules ‘tobacco smoking causes lung cancer’ and ‘if a patient’s blood pressure is greater than 135/95 mm Hg on three separate occasions, then the patient has high blood pressure’ are more complex examples of knowledge. Knowledge is created by identifying recurring patterns in data, for example across many different patients. We learn that events occur in a certain sequence or that an action typically has a specific effect. Through the process of model abstraction, these observations are codified into general rules about how the world is and works.
