Digital evolution: Novo Nordisk's shift to ontology-based data management.

Journal: Journal of biomedical semantics
PMID:

Abstract

The amount of biomedical data is growing, and managing it is increasingly challenging. While Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable (FAIR) data principles provide guidance, their adoption has proven difficult, especially in larger enterprises like pharmaceutical companies. In this manuscript, we describe how we leverage an Ontology-Based Data Management (OBDM) strategy for digital transformation in Novo Nordisk Research & Early Development. Here, we include both our technical blueprint and our approach for organizational change management. We further discuss how such an OBDM ecosystem plays a pivotal role in the organization's digital aspirations for data federation and discovery fuelled by artificial intelligence. Our aim for this paper is to share the lessons learned in order to foster dialogue with parties navigating similar waters while collectively advancing the efforts in the fields of data management, semantics and data driven drug discovery.

Authors

  • Shawn Zheng Kai Tan
    Samples Phenotypes and Ontologies Team (SPOT), European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI), Wellcome Genome Campus, Hinxton, Cambridgeshire, CB10 1SD, UK.
  • Shounak Baksi
    Novo Nordisk A/S, Novo Nordisk Park 1, Måløv, 2760, Denmark.
  • Thomas Gade Bjerregaard
    Novo Nordisk A/S, Novo Nordisk Park 1, Måløv, 2760, Denmark.
  • Preethi Elangovan
    Novo Nordisk A/S, Novo Nordisk Park 1, Måløv, 2760, Denmark.
  • Thrishna Kuttikattu Gopalakrishnan
    Novo Nordisk A/S, Novo Nordisk Park 1, Måløv, 2760, Denmark.
  • Darko Hric
    Novo Nordisk A/S, Novo Nordisk Park 1, Måløv, 2760, Denmark.
  • Joffrey Joumaa
    Novo Nordisk A/S, Novo Nordisk Park 1, Måløv, 2760, Denmark.
  • Beidi Li
    Novo Nordisk A/S, Novo Nordisk Park 1, Måløv, 2760, Denmark.
  • Kashif Rabbani
    Novo Nordisk A/S, Novo Nordisk Park 1, Måløv, 2760, Denmark.
  • Santhosh Kannan Venkatesan
    Novo Nordisk A/S, Novo Nordisk Park 1, Måløv, 2760, Denmark.
  • Joshua Daniel Valdez
    Novo Nordisk A/S, Novo Nordisk Park 1, Måløv, 2760, Denmark. jdnv@novonordisk.com.
  • Saritha Vettikunnel Kuriakose
    Novo Nordisk A/S, Novo Nordisk Park 1, Måløv, 2760, Denmark. szvk@novonordisk.com.