Creating a vaccine adverse event ontology for public health.

Creation of an ontology for Adverse Events Following Immunization (AEFI) can help immunization stakeholders better understand adverse events. Moreover, it enables the sharing and reuse of machine-readable knowledge and enhances surveillance systems. Linkage of this knowledge base to controlled vocabularies establishes the foundation for integration of information from different applications. This work describes the framework for ontology creation, the collaborative work supporting it and the overall mission of informatics to bridge organizations and enable knowledge sharing.