An ontology-based architecture for integration of clinical trials management applications

Management of complex clinical trials involves coordinated-use of a myriad of software applications by trial personnel. The applications typically use distinct knowledge representations and generate enormous amount of information during the course of a trial. It becomes vital that the applications exchange trial semantics in order for efficient management of the trials and subsequent analysis of clinical trial data. Existing model-based frameworks do not address the requirements of semantic integration of heterogeneous applications. We have built an ontology-based architecture to support interoperation of clinical trial software applications. Central to our approach is a suite of clinical trial ontologies, which we call Epoch, that define the vocabulary and semantics necessary to represent information on clinical trials. We are continuing to demonstrate and validate our approach with different clinical trials management applications and with growing number of clinical trials.