A framework for assessing the consistency of drug classes across sources

The objective of this study is to develop a framework for assessing the consistency of drug classes across sources, such as MeSH and ATC. Our framework integrates and contrasts lexical and instance-based ontology alignment techniques. Moreover, we propose metrics for assessing not only equivalence relations, but also inclusion relations among drug classes.

We identified 226 equivalence relations between MeSH and ATC classes through the lexical alignment, and 223 through the instance-based alignment, with limited overlap between the two (36). We also identified 6,257 inclusion relations. Discrepancies between lexical and instance-based alignments are illustrated and discussed.

Our work is the first attempt to align drug classes with sophisticated instance-based techniques, while also distinguishing between equivalence and inclusion relations. Additionally, it is the first application of aligning drug classes in ATC and MeSH. By providing a detailed account of similarities and differences between drug classes across sources, our framework has the prospect of effectively supporting the creation of a mapping of drug classes between ATC and MeSH by domain experts.