Questions around OHDSI’s Vocabulary System and Concept Set functions and how they relate to similar standards and resources beyond OHDSI keep coming up in a set of projects I’m working on. I’m sure these questions would be of interest to both 1) people like me whose work would benefit from deeper understanding and discussion of them, and 2) experts whose knowledge and opinions might inform and enlighten the discussion. So I’m starting a new, temporary study group and we’ll have our first meeting next Tuesday an hour after the OHDSI Collaborator call.
I’ve created a project page with meeting details here, http://www.ohdsi.org/web/wiki/doku.php?id=projects:vocab-study, and here’s an extract about motivations, topics, and who might be interested in attending:
- Objective: Meet as a temporary study group to learn and discuss external standards and tools relevant to OHDSI’s Vocabulary System and Concept Sets
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Motivations (and potentially interested parties):
- The Architecture Working Group has started to consider API specifications for Concept Sets and we need better understanding to determine the costs or benefits of attempting to accommodate or synchronize with standards and efforts beyond OHDSI. Also, the (currently suspended) Vocabulary-Visualization Working Group and people working on vocabulary system interfaces should not proceed while Concept Set specifications are liable to significant change
- The FHIR Working Group has yet to establish guidelines on mapping or interfacing between OHDSI and FHIR vocabulary and value set services
- The CDM Working Group and the OHDSI collaborator community at large must consider whether and when and how our standards and tools interoperate with those in other domains that depend on electronic health data
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Possible discussion topics:
- OHDSI’s Vocabulary System and other meta-terminology standards and resources
- Which others? (UMLS, CTS2, FHIR, etc., plus many commercial offerings)
- Are they alternatives, competitors, cousins, allies, or what? How are they relevant to us?
- OHDSI’s Concept Sets and similar standards and resources
- Which others? (VSAC, FHIR, PCORNet, Sentinel, commercial…)
- How do they relate to phenotypes and other functional or conceptual entities in the OHDSI framework?
- Long-term vision and short-term strategies for interoperability, reuse, modification, sharing, curation
- How should we relate these to external standards and resources, if at all?
- And at what level? Concept/Value Set or Phenotype?
- Are there usable, open source tools that we should consider leveraging for our vocab/concept set efforts?
- Who can we bring into the discussion to help us understand and discuss these issues?
- OHDSI’s Vocabulary System and other meta-terminology standards and resources
I’m looking forward to a lively discussion!
Sigfried