NCI Enterprise Vocabulary Services (EVS)
Distribution List. Up to date information and messages concerning
the EVS are sent out to a distribution list hosted by the NIH. Please subscribe to the list at
http://list.nih.gov/archives/ncievs-l.html
Introduction. The NCI EVS is set of services and resources that address NCI's needs for
controlled vocabulary. The EVS Project is a collaborative effort of the Center
for Bioinformatics and the NCI Office of Communications. The NCI Thesaurus, which is a biomedical thesaurus
created specifically to meet the needs of the NCI, is produced by the NCI EVS
project. The NCI Thesaurus is provided under an
open
content license. The EVS Project also produces the NCI Metathesaurus, which is
based on NLM's Unified Medical
Language System Metathesaurus supplemented with additional cancer-centric
vocabulary. In addition the EVS Project provides NCI with licenses for
MedDRA,
SNOMED,
ICD-O-3,
and other proprietary vocabularies.
Documentation. As part of the caCORE 2.0 release,
we are publishing a Technical Guide and a User’s Guide containing material that covers all of
caCORE including an overview of the
EVS and information on how to download the September 2003 version of the NCI
Thesaurus in Ontology Web Language (OWL), eXtensible Markup Language (XML) or flat file format.
Implementation. The
EVS vocabulary services
are implemented as Oracle relational databases accessed through
Apelon server software. The NCI Thesaurus is a semantically modeled
cancer-related terminology built using description logic. It is made available on the Internet using
Apelon DTS server software. The NCI Metathesaurus is a database of many biomedical terminologies,
mapped where possible to NCI Thesaurus terms and shared conceptual meanings. It is
made available on the Internet using Apelon Metaphrase server software. Both the DTS and Metaphrase servers
have proprietary APIs. NCICB has extended the functionality of both servers, including concept-level history
support for NCI Thesaurus. NCICB has wrapped the proprietary Apelon APIs in our open caBIO API.
The open caBIO API
provides access to both the standard and enhanced capabilities of our vocabulary
servers. The EVS Package contained in the caBIO component of caCORE 2.0 provides an integrated, fully
supported standard means of accessing all the capabilities of the EVS servers.
EVS Curation. EVS is a partnership between the NCI Office of Communications and the NCI
Center for Bioinformatics. The EVS Project facilitates the
standardization of vocabulary across the Institute and the larger cancer
biomedical domain. We are taking a collaborative approach to this challenge. In
addition to formal governance, provided by the NCI Vocabulary Executive Group
and outside experts, collaboration with current and prospective users of EVS
services is a major emphasis. At present a number of NCI and affiliated
organizations are ongoing collaborators in defining EVS content. In addition,
we are active in standard development organizations, interagency efforts to develop
public domain vocabulary products, and software. As opportunities arise, the EVS Project and NCICB engage
in NCI-wide harmonization initiatives addressing how vocabulary is used to code,
retrieve and aggregate information.
Downloads.
The
content of the NCI Thesaurus is available for download
in ASCII flat file format, in Ontology Web Language format and in Apelon's
proprietary Ontylog XML format. The NCI Thesaurus is provided under an
open
content license. Also a
description of the semantics of the NCI Thesaurus is available at
the download site.
Tools and Access.
Web browsing of the NCI Thesaurus and several other public
terminologies is provided at the NCI Thesaurus Web
site. Browsing of the NCI Metathesaurus is
provided on a second Web site.
Also, NCICB is supporting development of an Ontology
Web Language tab for the open source ontology development tool Protégé. The OWL Tab will enable others to
extend or otherwise adapt the NCI Thesaurus in OWL format to local needs.
Those wishing to develop
software that calls on the NCI EVS services should use the caCORE API.
The caBIO API found
in the caCORE is the supported mechanism to interface user-developed software
to the EVS servers. Contact ncicb@pop.nci.nih.gov
or at http://ncicbsupport.nci.nih.gov/sw/
to request technical support or additional information about the NCI EVS Project.