Ontology as a tool for terminological representation: design considerations

Abstract

Ontologies are tools that describe knowledge domains, considering the concepts and relationships among them, as well as their limits. They provide an abstract representation of a field of knowledge, that can be understood by humans and digital devices. As complex systems that posit the terms used by an academic community to define and describe a topic, they facilitate search, recovery, visualization and analysis of knowledge domains, including health professions education. The goal of this paper is to discuss the relevance of these tools for scientific disciplines, to provide an overview of the design, development and construction of ontologies, and to analyze the challenges and difficulties in their definition and classification.