Formal-ontological descriptions as quantifiable surplus value for biomedical terminologies and classification systems

• Antragsteller: Professor Dr. Martin Boeker; Professor Dr. Ludger Jansen
• Fachliche Zuordnung: Epidemiologie und Medizinische Biometrie/Statistik
• Förderung: Förderung von 2009 bis 2015
• Projektkennung: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Projektnummer 128165319

The data explosion in life sciences and health care requires a terminological standardization. For this purpose, hundreds of heterogeneous terminological systems have been created. In recent years, there has been the tendency to describe such systems by means of mathematical logic in consideration of principles of formal ontology. Examples are the Open Biological Ontologies or SNOMED CT. It is, however, controversial whether the additional effort arising from this is balanced by a substantial benefit. We want to develop ontological principles for the formal representation of generic (functional and dysfunctional) life processes like biomedical events, conditions, processes and functions, and remodel selected content of the Gene Ontology and SNOMED CT. The modelling principles shall be exemplified by numerous examples from the domains of medicine and biology and transposed into guidelines for ontology developers. By doing so, the expedience of an ontology-based domain structuring shall be examined empirically. By means of concrete modelling tasks to be performed in parallel by domain experts, the standardization benefit shall be quantified on the basis of consistency parameters, thereby enabling a controlled evaluation of the guideline.

• DFG-Verfahren: Sachbeihilfen
• Ehemaliger Antragsteller: Professor Dr. Stefan Schulz