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The practical impact of ontologies on biomedical informatics
1Department of Biomedical Informatics, Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York, New York, USA. jjc7@columbia.edu
Yearbook of Medical Informatics
|October 20, 2006
Summary
Recent advancements in controlled biomedical ontologies have significantly impacted terminology development and use in healthcare information systems. This research reviews twelve key projects, highlighting their ontologic aspects and contributions.
Area of Science:
- Biomedical Informatics
- Knowledge Representation
- Medical Terminology
Background:
- Controlled biomedical terminologies are crucial for organizing health information.
- The representation of structured, definitional knowledge within these terminologies, often termed 'ontologies', is an active area of research.
Purpose of the Study:
- To review recent research on the development and evaluation of controlled biomedical terminologies, focusing on ontologic aspects.
- To analyze the structured, definitional knowledge representation within these terminologies.
Main Methods:
- Literature review using PubMed.
- Full-text searches of Medinfo and AMIA Symposia proceedings.
- Searched for 'ontology' and 'ontologies', and specific prominent ontological projects.
Main Results:
- Summarized ontologic aspects of twelve projects: Galen, UMLS, MED, SNOMED-CT, LOINC, FMA, GO, ISO Reference Terminology Model for Nursing Diagnosis, NDF-RT, RxNorm, NCI Thesaurus, and DOLCE+.
- Discussed origins, domains, ontologic representation, and impact of each project.
- Noted the contribution of the Protégé tool to these efforts.
Conclusions:
- Biomedical terminology research has advanced significantly, particularly with the focus on controlled ontologies.
- Ontologies have substantially impacted terminology development, standardization, and their application in biomedical information systems.
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