Combining expert knowledge and knowledge automatically acquired from electronic data sources for continued ontology evaluation and improvement

Abstract

Introduction: A common bottleneck during ontology evaluation is knowledge acquisition from domain experts for gold standard creation. This paper contributes a novel semi-automated method for evaluating the concept coverage and accuracy of biomedical ontologies by complementing expert knowledge with knowledge automatically extracted from clinical practice guidelines and electronic health records, which minimizes reliance on expensive domain expertise for gold standards generation. Methods: We developed a bacterial clinical infectious diseases ontology (BCIDO) to assist clinical infectious disease treatment decision support. Using a semi-automated method we integrated diverse knowledge sources..