Harmonizing Heterogeneous Data: A Materialized Knowledge Graph Approach for Federated Information Systems

Healthcare is one of the major industries where sharing information with a common understanding is essential. This research presents a federated knowledge graph framework with its materialized knowledge graph (MKG) approach. It also explores the transformative potential of federated knowledge graphs (FKGs) as a solution to address the persistent challenges of data integration and interoperability in today's complex information landscape, especially within federated information system development (ISD). The authors tailored Design Science Research Methodology (DSRM) to develop design artifacts embedded with a core domain-oriented ontological metadata model focused on cardiovascular diseases. By adopting FKGs, organizations can streamline data integration efforts, improve cross-system data harmonization, and foster seamless data exchange with metadata standardization among diverse information sources. This research highlights the advantages of FKGs in enhancing data connectivity with semantic alignment, seamless data transformation and interlinking, facilitating on-demand data retrieval to support optimization of query performance, scalability, and more effective decision-making processes within healthcare settings.