AutismOnt: An Ontology-Driven Decision Support For Autism Diagnosis and Treatment

Abstract

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a deleterious neurodevelopmental disorder affecting 1 in 54 children. The complex interdisciplinary nature of ASD research, however, introduces challenges to the spread and accessibility of new discoveries among researchers in different disciplines; furthermore, this highly complex research environment makes it even harder for practicing physicians and primary care providers to keep up with recent advances, which would profoundly impact the extent toward which recent research impacts standard medical and caretake practices. In order to contribute toward bridging the gaps between researchers in different fields, practicing physicians, and primary caretakers, we have created the most expansive autism ontology up to date (AutimsOnt) through utilizing the Protégé ontological framework. With 676 classes and more than 124 properties, AutismOnt can serve as the foundation to support a wide range of applications ranging from decision support systems for practicing physicians to text annotation processes that would allow for the creation of an interdisciplinary research platform where investigators can easily share and retrieve scientific findings. The Ontology is available in the NCBO BioPortal.