Introducing the revised Human Phenotype Ontology (HPO) – a new language for Big Data in the epilepsies

Classification. Our classification of the epilepsies periodically undergoes revision to align the way we think about the epilepsies with scientific progress in the field. While it is intuitive that relatively novel frameworks such as the 2017 International League Against Epilepsy (ILAE) Operational Classification of Seizure Types capture the current spirit of the field more accurately than prior classifications, one relatively simple question is not easily answered: how much more accurate? How we get to such an answer requires us to take a step back and think about how the value of clinical information can be measured and compared. In our recent publication, we describe the revision of the Human Phenotype Ontology (HPO) according to the most recent ILAE classifications and other respected definitions in current use. This gives the answer to the prior question: 40% (which is a lot). Continue reading