The COPD ontology and toward empowering clinical scientists as ontology engineers

Ontology development and maintenance is a costly undertaking, despite known benefits. Empowerment via ownership may offer a solution to this problem. This article considers empowering clinical scientists as ontology engineers and illustrates this concept through an account of an ontology project in Chronic Obstruction Pulmonary Disease (COPD). The article begins with a brief review of ontology and clinical science. Next, the SPIROMICS project is introduced and the inter-workings (nuts-and-bolts) of the current COPD ontology are described, including an overview of the ontology development team's accomplishments. Following is an initial high-level proposal of steps to engage clinical scientists in the COPD work—as engineers, as well as some processing guidelines. The final section presents conclusions and highlights next steps.