TRADITIONAL MEDICINAL PRACTICES OF AFRICAN BONE-SETTERS: ASPECTS OF AN ONTOLOGY OF THE FIELD

Traditional bone-setters (TBS) in West Africa remain the first resort in managing rural populations when they suffer from traumatic injuries before going to hospital. This phenomenon is also observed in urban areas. Indeed, some patients hospitalized in referencial public orthopedic trauma services desert these structures for certain reasons in favor of these traditional healers. This leads us to acknowledge that this local medical practice proves itself where the so-called conventional medicine has shown its limits. Unfortunately, we notice that most of these practitioners are old and illiterate. In addition, there is a lack of interest among the younger generation in practicing this traditional medicine. Also, it is observed that there is no standard or adequate formalism during the patient care process directed towards this medicine. In the effort to preserve this valuable knowledge, we propose to implement an ontology derived from this environment called ontoFRACTURECARE. This ontology is capable of structuring, highlighting, and providing a unique and consensus designation to relevant concepts associated with this domain. Furthermore, this ontology will serve as a compass for bone-setters and various users of this domain for intelligent decision-making during the process of administering care to patients, during the training of practitioners, and in the transmission of this traditional medicinal heritage.