The Human Phenotype Ontology (HPO) is a widely used resource that comprehensively organizes and defines the phenotypic features of human disease, enabling computational inference and supporting genomic and phenotypic analyses through semantic similarity and machine learning algorithms. The HPO has widespread applications in clinical diagnostics and translational research, including genomic diagnostics, gene-disease discovery, and cohort analytics. In recent years, groups around the world have developed translations of the HPO from English to other languages, and the HPO browser has been internationalized, allowing users to view HPO term labels and in many cases synonyms and definitions in ten languages in addition to English. Since our last report, a total of 2239 new HPO terms and 49235 new HPO annotations were developed, many in collaboration with external groups in the fields of psychiatry, arthrogryposis, immunology and cardiology. The Medical Action Ontology (MAxO) is a new effort to model treatments and other measures taken for clinical management. Finally, the HPO consortium is contributing to efforts to integrate the HPO and the GA4GH Phenopacket Schema into electronic health records (EHRs) with the goal of more standardized and computable integration of rare disease data in EHRs.
22 December 2009 in Child: Care, Health and Development
The Unilateral Below Elbow Test (UBET) was developed to evaluate function in bimanual activities for both the prosthesis wearer and non-wearer. Nine tasks were chosen for each of four age-specific categories defined by development stages of hand function (2-4y, 5-7y, 8-10y, and 11-21y). Two scales, Completion of Task and Method of Use, were designed to rate performance. To measure reliability, four occupational therapists scored samples of videotaped UBET performances. For Completion of Task, an interval scale, agreement in scoring was measured with interclass correlation coefficients (ICC; n=9; five females, four males). For Method of Use, a nominal scale, chance-adjusted association was calculated with Cohen's kappa coefficients (interobserver n=198; 111 females, 87 males; intraobserver n=93; 56 females, 37 males). For Completion of Task, the average ICC was 0.87 for the prosthesis-on condition, and 0.85 for the prosthesis-off condition. ICCs exceeded 0.80 for eight out of nine tasks for the two older age groups, but for only five out of nine tasks in the younger age groups. Higher inter- and intraobserver kappa coefficients for Method of Use resulted when scoring children with their prostheses on versus off. The oldest age group had lower kappa values than the other three groups. The UBET is recommended for the functional evaluation of Completion of Task in children with unilateral congenital below elbow deficiency with and without their prostheses. Method of Use scoring can evaluate individuals for directed therapy interventions or prosthetic training.