CTSOC Kickoff Meeting

Clinical and Translational Science Ontology Consortium (CTSOC)

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. Barry Smith (Buffalo) and William Hogan (MCW) will serve as Co-Directors. Exploring relations between ontology AI will be a characteristic of the CTSOC meetings down the road.

CTSOC Kickoff Meeting, September 17 2025, 10am - 4pm EST (in Buffalo and online)

Goals of the meeting are:

● to bring together CTSOC members who are working on ontologies in overlapping fields

● 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 divided in blocks designed to allow those with common interests to dial-in at different times 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.

Topics will include:

● Current ontology development work in CTSOC members

● RAG, neurosymbolic and other approaches to the use of ontology in AI

● Steps towards an ontology of uses of AI in medicine

● Impact ontology as a basis for CTSA evaluation metrics

Participants will include:

Matt Diller (NLM): OGMS Barry Smith (UB): BFO updates

Further topic suggestions are welcome.

The CTSOC is the successor to 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 and AI will be a characteristic of CTSOC interactions down the road.

Background information on CTSOC

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 [2] final meeting of that group, which featured participants from NVIDIA. was devoted to the topic of Ontologies, AI and Electronic Health Records.

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.

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.