Page History
| Table of Contents | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Introduction
This tutorial page is intended for i2b2 administrators who are new to i2b2 and clinical informatics. Maybe you've been asked to deploy i2b2 for your institution. Maybe your institution already has an i2b2 instance, and you've just inherited it. You are curious about how things work and how to set up or modify the ontology database. This page will bring you some insight.
Part 1: Ontology Basics
What is an ontology?
"Ontology" represents the branch of Philosophy that discusses "existence." But in Information Science, an "ontology" is a way of listing the attributes of a subject area and showing how these attributes are interrelated. An ontology for a subject area or "domain" consists of a set of terms that represent the entities in that domain, along with a set of expressions that define how the entities in that domain are related to each other.
...
Yes! Here is a Glossary that provides explainers for many of the key terms related to i2b2 ontologies and the i2b2 architecture.
...
Part 2: Choosing Your Ontology
Do all i2b2 instances share the same i2b2 ontology?
...
| Tip Box |
|---|
Setting up i2b2 can be a complex undertaking. You can learn a lot about how it works, and get the system up and running most quickly, by first setting up your i2b2 instance with the i2b2 Demo Ontology and demo patient data. Those databases will comprise a "Demo" project in your i2b2 instance. When you have proven the deployment with the demo project, you can add a separate, new project for research. In this case you could use actual patient data in a second CRC database and an ACT Ontology in a second ONT database. Those new databases will comprise a "research" project in your i2b2 instance. |
...
Part 3: How Ontologies and Patient Data Are Tied Together
How does it work? How does the i2b2 ontology make the patient data queryable?
...
