Coordinating Coronavirus Research with IDO-COVID-19

The Infectious Disease Ontology (IDO) Core - which represents terminological content common to investigations of infectious diseases – has long-provided a foundation for ontological extensions to specific infectious diseases. The growing array of virus specific extensions has created a need for the construction of a reference ontology comprised of content common to investigations of viral infectious diseases. The present pandemic, moreover, has created the need for a COVID-19 specific ontology that is semantically integrated with ontologies representing geography, healthcare policy, and biomedical domains. We report the development of two ontologies designed to meet these needs: The Virus Infectious Disease Ontology and the COVID-19 Infectious Disease Ontology.