CTSOC Kickoff Meeting

The Clinical and Translational Science Ontology Consortium (CTSOC) was established in the Spring of 2027 to advance the goals of the NIH CTSA initiative by promoting ontology-based interoperability of data within and between CTSA hubs.

The CTSOC takes over from the CTS Ontology Group, which has held annual meetings on a range of ontology-related topics, summarized here. Interestingly, the [1] final meeting of that group, which featured participants from NVIDIA. was devoted to the topic of Ontologies, AI and Electronic Health Records.

Incorporating relations between ontology AI -- through both neurosymbolic and RAG paradigms -- will be a characteristic of the CTSOC meetings down the road.

CTSOC currently involves 8 CTSA hubs:

● Arkansas

● Buffalo

● Florida

● MD Anderson Cancer Center

● UMichigan

● UCal San Diego

● Texas Southwestern

● Medical College of Wisconsin (MCW)

Barry Smith (Buffalo) and William Hogan (MCW) will serve as Co-Directors.

Kickoff Meeting in Buffalo on September 17 2025, 10am - 4pm

This meeting will be a hybrid affair, which means that it will involve participants joining via zoom as well as those in Buffalo. We are organising the meeitng on the one hand in order to bring together CTSOC members who are working on ontologies in overlapping fields and on the other hand in order to explore ways in which use of ontologies and of AI technology in the healthcare field might support each other mutually. The program for the meeting will be compiled in stages designed to allow those with common interests to dial-in in different slots during the day.

Those wishing to participate -- from within or without the CTSA world -- should contact Barry Smith at phismith@buffalo.edu indicating their areas of interest.

Goals of CTSOC

1. Apply the ontology-driven approach to critical areas of CTS where ontology coverage is thus far lacking, including: Clinical and Translational Science Ontology (CTSO), with branches:

● Clinical and Translational Science Organization Ontology (CTSOO)

● Clinical and Translational Science Impact Ontology (CTSIO)

● Social Determinants of Health Ontology (CTSSDHO)

● Public Health Ontology (CTSPHO)

● Ontology for Uses of AI in CTS (CTSAIO)

2. Explore ways in which the use of ontologies can improve the usability of data at CTSA hubs

3. Explore ways in which the use of ontologies can streamline exchange and integration of data between CTSA hubs in ways that will promote Findability, Accessibility, Interoperability and Reuse (= FAIRness) of digital assets and thereby manifesting a commitment to the CTSA open science principles

4. Conduct translational science on the ways in which these ontology-based approaches compare to existing common data elements approaches in use by CTSA hubs.