An Ontologic Approach to Leverage Surgical Training Data Development and Application of a CranioMaxilloFacial Ontology

Oral and maxillofacial surgery (OMS) is a surgical specialty involving procedures on the neck and head. OMS training program accreditation and evaluation requires reporting the surgical experiences of trainees. Current systems for tracking these experiences are based on coarse payment coding systems. To provide more granular training data, we are developing an ontology-driven surgical resident training log (OMSLog). We use a blended architecture consisting of an interface for trainees, faculty, and/or administrators to record surgical experiences, a traditional relational database back-end for data storage, with both supported by a new domain ontology. The CranioMaxilloFacial (CMF) ontology is built on a SNOMED CT foundation and is extended to include granular domain concepts and educational experiences. Current results are a pilot graphical user interface (GUI) driven by a >7,000 concept domain ontology. Future steps include pilot testing in the residency program and ontological alignment with the Human Phenotype Ontology (HPO).