Use of ontologies in veterinary medicine

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ABSTRACT:

Although veterinary medicine is an established field, the use of ontologies in veterinary medicine is a small but growing area. Ontologies are currently used in disease surveillance systems, in hospital case repositories and are being tailored for utilization in practice management systems. In this presentation we will explore some of these current and developing uses of ontologies in veterinary medicine as well as some areas where ontologies have a role in the future.

SPEAKER BIO:

Suzanne Santamaria is a veterinary terminologist and research assistant professor in the Veterinary Medical Informatics Laboratory at the Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine at Virginia Tech. Dr. Santamaria has more than 6 years of experience in developing and managing ontologies, including a veterinary extension of SNOMED-CT, and in analyzing the Structured Product Label (SPL) for use in veterinary medicine. She recently led the efforts to develop the Animals in Context Ontology. 

Dr. Santamaria has a DVM from Purdue University and a MS in veterinary medical informatics from Virginia Tech. She is currently president-elect of the Association for Veterinary Informatics (AVI). She has published ontology related articles in the Journal of Veterinary Medical Education and for the 2012 International Conference on Biomedical Ontology (ICBO), and is a regular speaker at the AVI Talbot Symposium on Informatics held at the annual American Veterinary Medical Association Convention.