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A catchy architecture for the i2b2 ontology is of great importance for the usability of the whole i2b2 project. All clinical data (or facts) are stored in one central database table, independent of their origin, structure, source system or describing entity. It's up to the user to build a query by selecting the right parameters out of the provided i2b2 ontology. Therefore, the navigational hierarchy needs to be arranged in way that required concepts will be found easily, even in very large or very complex vocabularies.

Furthermore, when mapping source data to the i2b2 data model, there is often more than one way to represent the characteristics of the source data elements. This is especially true for integrating data from heterogenous sources or from different research projects when several conceptual models need to be harmonized (late mapping).

This wiki page will try to provide a better understanding of the i2b2 ontology model and its versatility to address common problems. After a short introduction to the terminology and the database schema, it will also mention advanced features like modifiers and XML blobs.

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