🔍 Mapping Steps
Step 1: Conversion to the target model¶
Internally, all models are mapped to the Beacon v2 Models.
Why use Beacon v2 as the target model?
- JSON Schema Utilization: Beacon v2 employs JSON Schema for model content definition, facilitating transparency and accessibility in a collaborative environment compared to Phenopackets' Protobuf usage.
- Accommodation of Additional Properties: The Beacon v2 Models schema permits additional properties, enhancing adaptability and enabling near-lossless conversion, especially when using JSON in non-relational databases.
- Beacon v2 API Compatibility: The BFF is directly compatible with the Beacon v2 API ecosystem, a feature not available in Phenopackets without additional mapping.
- Expansion Possibility: Being based at CNAG, a genomics institution, the potential to extend Convert-Pheno's mapping to encompass other Beacon v2 entities was a significant consideration.
- Overlap with Phenopackets v2: Despite minor differences in nomenclature or hierarchy, many essential terms remain identical, encouraging interoperability.
Schema mapping¶
When starting a new conversion between two data models, the first step is to map variables between the two data schemas. At the time of writting this (Sep-2023) the mapping of variables is still performed manually by human brains 
.
Mapping strategy: External or hardcoded?
In the early stages of development, we explored the possibility of employing configuration files to guide the mapping process as an alternative to hardcoded solutions. However, JSON data structures' complexity, mainly due to nesting, made this approach impractical for most scenarios, except for REDCap and CDISC-ODM data, which are mapped to Beacon v2 Models via configuration files.
In the Mapping tables section (accessible via the 'Technical Details' tab on the left navigation bar), we outline the equivalencies between different schemas. These tables fulfill several purposes:
- It's a quick way to help out the Health Data community.
- Experts can check it out and suggest changes without digging into all the code.
- If you want to chip in and create a new conversion, you can start by making a mapping table.
Notice
Please note that accurately mapping, even between two standards, is a substantial undertaking. While we possess expertise in certain areas, we certainly don't claim mastery in all 
. We sincerely welcome any suggestions or feedback.
From table mappings to code¶
The tables function as a reference for implementing the source code of Convert-Pheno. For each format conversion, there is a dedicated Perl submodule.
Contributing
While creating the code for a new format can be challenging, modifying properties in an existing one is much easier. Feel free to reach us should you plan to contribute.
Lossless or lossy conversion?¶
When converting data from one data standard to another, it is important to consider the possibility of losing information due to differences in schema and field mapping. To mitigate this, we aimed for a lossless conversion by incorporating non-mappable variables as additionalProperties within the Beacon v2 Models schema. This allows users to access the original variables and their values through database queries, especially when using non-relational databases like MongoDB.
During the conversion process, handling variables that cannot be directly mapped can result in one of two scenarios:
Often, the input data model has variables that do not directly map to the target but are still useful to retain in the output format. If the target format allows for extra properties in a given term (as BFF does), these original variables are stored under the _info property (or _ + ‘property name’). This commonly happens in conversions from OMOP CDM to BFF.
Example extracted from omop2bff conversion:
"interventionsOrProcedures" : [
{
"_info" : {
"PROCEDURE_OCCURRENCE" : {
"OMOP_columns" : {
"modifier_concept_id" : 0,
"modifier_source_value" : null,
"person_id" : 2,
"procedure_concept_id" : 4163872,
"procedure_date" : "1955-10-22",
"procedure_datetime" : "1955-10-22 00:00:00",
"procedure_occurrence_id" : 6,
"procedure_source_concept_id" : 4163872,
"procedure_source_value" : 399208008,
"procedure_type_concept_id" : 38000275,
"provider_id" : "\\N",
"quantity" : "\\N",
"visit_detail_id" : 0,
"visit_occurrence_id" : 103
}
}
},
"ageAtProcedure" : {
"age" : {
"iso8601duration" : "35Y"
}
},
"dateOfProcedure" : "1955-10-22",
"procedureCode" : {
"id" : "SNOMED:399208008",
"label" : "Plain chest X-ray"
}
}
]
Example extracted from redcap2bff conversion:
"treatments" : [
{
"_info" : {
"dose" : null,
"drug" : "budesonide",
"drug_name" : "budesonide",
"duration" : null,
"field" : "budesonide_oral_status",
"route" : "oral",
"start" : null,
"status" : "never treated",
"value" : 1
},
"doseIntervals" : [],
"routeOfAdministration" : {
"id" : "NCIT:C38288",
"label" : "Oral Route of Administration"
},
"treatmentCode" : {
"id" : "NCIT:C1027",
"label" : "Budesonide"
}
}
]
Example of longitudinal data stored under _visit in a omop2bff conversion:
"_visit" : {
"_info" : {
"VISIT_OCCURRENCE" : {
"OMOP_columns" : {
"admitting_source_concept_id" : 0,
"admitting_source_value" : null,
"care_site_id" : "\\N",
"discharge_to_concept_id" : 0,
"discharge_to_source_value" : null,
"person_id" : 3,
"preceding_visit_occurrence_id" : 347,
"provider_id" : "\\N",
"visit_concept_id" : 9201,
"visit_end_date" : "1972-12-21",
"visit_end_datetime" : "1972-12-21 00:00:00",
"visit_occurrence_id" : 312,
"visit_source_concept_id" : 0,
"visit_source_value" : "5d035dd1-30d9-4389-b94c-64947bf1f18c",
"visit_start_date" : "1972-12-20",
"visit_start_datetime" : "1972-12-20 00:00:00",
"visit_type_concept_id" : 44818517
}
}
},
"concept" : {
"id" : "Visit:IP",
"label" : "Inpatient Visit"
},
"end_date" : "1972-12-21T00:00:00Z",
"id" : "312",
"occurrence_id" : 312,
"start_date" : "1972-12-20T00:00:00Z",
"type" : {
"id" : "Visit Type:OMOP4822465",
"label" : "Visit derived from encounter on claim"
}
},
"featureType" : {
"id" : "SNOMED:428251008",
"label" : "History of appendectomy"
},
"onset" : {
"iso8601duration" : "56Y"
}
}
When a variable corresponds to other entities in Beacon v2 Models, it is stored within the info term of the individuals entity. For instance, a PXF file may contain the biosamples property, which doesn't find a direct match in the individuals entity as it corresponds to the biosamples entity in Beacon v2 Models. To ensure the retention of this information, we place it under info.phenopacket.biosamples.
Example extracted from pxf2bff conversion:
"info" : {
"phenopacket" : {
"biosamples" : [
{
"id" : "biosample.1",
"phenotypicFeatures" : [
{
"excluded" : false,
"type" : {
"id" : "HP:0003798",
"label" : "Nemaline bodies"
}
}
],
"procedure" : {
"bodySite" : {
"id" : "UBERON:0002378",
"label" : "muscle of abdomen"
},
"code" : {
"id" : "NCIT:C51895",
"label" : "Muscle Biopsy"
},
"performed" : {
"age" : {
"iso8601duration" : "P1D"
}
}
},
"sampledTissue" : {
"id" : "UBERON:0002378",
"label" : "muscle of abdomen"
}
}
]
}
}
Preservation and augmentation of ontologies¶
One of the advantages of Beacon/Phenopackets v2 is that they do not prescribe the use of specific ontologies, thus allowing us to retain the original ontologies, except to fill in missing terms in required fields.
Which ontologies/terminologies are supported?
If the input files contain ontology tems, the ontologies will be preserved and remain intact after the conversion process, except for:
- Beacon v2 Models and Phenopackets v2: the property
sexis converted to NCI Thesaurus via database search. - OMOP CDM: the properties
sex,ethnicity, andgeographicOriginare converted to NCI Thesaurus via database search.
| CSV | REDCap | CDISC-ODM | OMOP-CDM | Phenopackets v2 | Beacon v2 Models | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Data mapping | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Add ontologies | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | --ohdsi-db |
Database Search Feature
For input types that do not contain ontologies, such as CSV, REDCap, and CDISC-ODM, we perform a database search to fetch ontologies from a variety of trusted databases. Supported databases include:
- Athena-OHDSI standardized vocabulary, which includes multiple terminologies, such as SNOMED, RxNorm or LOINC
- NCI Thesaurus
- ICD-10 terminology
- CDISC (Study Data Tabulation Model Terminology)
- OMIM Online Mendelian Inheritance in Man
- HPO Human Phenotype Ontology (Note that prefixes are
HP:, without theO)
See an example of how the ontology similarity search it's performed in the REDCap tutorial.
Step 2: Conversion to the final model¶
If the output is set to Phenopackets v2 then a second step (bff2pxf) is performed (see diagram above).
BFF and PXF community alignment
At present, we have prioritized mapping the terms that we deem most critical in facilitating basic semantic interoperability. We anticipate that Beacon v2 Models will become more aligned with Phenopackets v2, which will simplify the conversion process in future updates. We aim to refine the mappings in future iterations, with the community providing a wider range of case studies.