CTSA Ontology Workshop

The National Center for Biomedical Ontology will hold a CTSA Ontology Tutorial and Workshop in its series of training and dissemination events.

The Tutorial will provide an introduction to ontology technology focusing on the needs of CTSA clinical scientists.

The Workshop will provide an opportunity for those involved in ontology-related projects across the CTSA Consortium to review what has been achieved thus far and consider plans and strategies for enhanced coordination in the future.

Venue: To be decided

Date: Scheduled tentatively for spring 2012

Organization: Barry Smith (NCBO), Jessica Tenenbaum (Duke), Rob Wynden (UCSF)

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Tutorial (Day 0)

Introduction to Biomedical Ontology for Non-Experts

Foundations of Biomedical Ontology

What is an ontology and what is it useful for?

The problem of data silos

NIH mandates for sharing and reuse of research data

Examples of biomedical ontologies:

• Gene Ontology (GO)
• Foundational Model of Anatomy (FMA)
• Infectious Disease Ontology (IDO)

Ontology Technology

An Introduction to the Semantic Web and the Web Ontology Language (OWL)

Using ontologies for data retrieval, integration and reasoning

Success stories

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Workshop (Day 1)

Major Ontology Initiatives within the CTSA Consortium

Chris Chute (Mayo): Data Governance and Normalization within the Mayo Clinic Enterprise

Melissa Haendel (Oregon) and Jon Corson-Rikert (Cornell): eagle-i and VIVO Ontology Initiatives

Jessica Tenenbaum (Duke): Remarks on Genetics Ontologies 

William Hogan (Arkansas) and Werner Ceusters (Buffalo): Referent Tracking and Demographic Data Ontology

Shawn Murphy (Partners): i2b2-Specific Ontologies

Richard Scheuermann and Lindsay Cowell (Dallas): NLP-Based Mapping of Textbook Pathology to Ontology for General Medical Science (OGMS)

Possibly also: OCRe (for clinical research), Permissions Ontology (for consent; owned by Jihad Obeid at Medical University of South Carolina); BRO and Biositmaps (for resource registry); biobanking ontology (Arkansas)

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Workshop (Day 2)

EHR, Ontology and Interoperability

Presentations by EHR vendors

Rob Wynden (UCSF): The Health Ontology Mapper (HOM).

Next Steps

How can we measure the value brought by ontology-based approaches?

How can we ensure high-quality and high-value approaches?

How can we promote a consistent approach across the CTSA consortium?