# Human Phenotype Ontology - URL: https://alisanburak.com/en/wcp-2026-posterler/k188 - Language: en - Last updated: not specified - Page title: Human Phenotype Ontology | WCP 2026 Summary > Although current diagnostic classifications are clinically useful, their heterogeneous and discrete categories have limited capacity to capture the complexity,… This page was translated automatically from Turkish. [Read the original](https://alisanburak.com/wcp-2026-posterler/k188) This page is an AI-assisted Turkish summary of the study presented at the 26th World Congress of Psychiatry. The study belongs to the presenting authors; please refer to the original source when citing it. Plenary Session and Distinguished LectureOtherReview / Opinion # Human Phenotype Ontology Human phenotype ontology Presenter: Melvin McInnis Country: United States of America Session: 3960 - DISTINGUISHED LECTURES: ETHICS, COGNITION, AND GENOMIC FRAMEWORKS IN CONTEMPORARY PSYCHIATRY Date: Fri, 25.09.2026, 16:45 - 17:15 Room: Victoria Hall Although current diagnostic classifications are clinically useful, their heterogeneous and discrete categories have limited capacity to capture the complexity, granularity, and variability over time of psychopathology; the Human Phenotype Ontology, which operates at the level of observable features, offers a complementary framework. Psychiatry has relied on classification systems to define and organize mental conditions, guiding clinical decision-making, hospital billing, and translational research; the terms classification, taxonomy, and ontology are often used interchangeably, obscuring important differences in purpose, structure, and epistemic function. By examining these distinctions, the presentation invites a reconsideration of what current systems can and cannot achieve; it highlights the heterogeneous and discrete nature of their categories and their limited capacity to capture the complexity, granularity, and temporal variability of psychopathology, noting that systems such as SNOMED CT face similar challenges when they combine classification, terminology, and phenomenology without sufficient conceptual differentiation. Work conducted within the Human Phenotype Ontology (HPO) framework to represent psychiatric phenomena not only at the level of diagnostic categories but also at the level of observable features will be presented. Drawing on a Delphi process that gathers expert views on the definitions and boundaries of key terms, an ontology of affect and emotion and an ontology of sleep-related phenomena are presented as examples; these examples highlight the need for shared, consensus-based definitions, explicit specification of relationships between concepts, and community-driven refinement of phenomenology. The application of HPO to clinical data will demonstrate its capacity for phenotype-based clustering and the prediction of meaningful outcomes; analyses of symptom severity patterns and change over time will compare phenomenological clusters with categorical diagnoses. The presentation concludes with a collaborative agenda for developing ontological systems that are precise, clinically useful, empirically testable, and reflective of the complexity of clinical psychopathology. How to cite this study APA 7: McInnis, M., et al. (2026, September 25). Human phenotype ontology [Keynote address]. 26th WPA World Congress of Psychiatry (WCP 2026), Stockholm, Sweden. Vancouver: McInnis M, et al. Human phenotype ontology [keynote address]. 26th WPA World Congress of Psychiatry (WCP 2026); 2026 Sep 23-26; Stockholm, Sweden. Author names and title formatting were generated automatically from the congress system; please check them against the original poster before use. ## On the same topic - [Genç erişkinlerde dikkat eksikliği hiperaktivite bozukluğu ve dürtüsellik üzerine klinik olgu](https://alisanburak.com/en/wcp-2026-posterler/ev0066) - [Erişkin dikkat eksikliği/hiperaktivite bozukluğunda duygusal disregülasyonun yaygınlığı ve klinik etkisi: özelleşmiş bir polikliniğe dayalı geriye dönük çalışma](https://alisanburak.com/en/wcp-2026-posterler/ev0081) - [Tuval üzerindeki zihin: Edvard Munch ile sanat ve psikiyatrinin kesişimi](https://alisanburak.com/en/wcp-2026-posterler/ev0130) - [Ekranda insan ruhu: sinemada psikolojik korku üzerine bir inceleme](https://alisanburak.com/en/wcp-2026-posterler/ev0131) - [Acıdan resimlere: sanatın psikiyatri hastalarının iyilik hali üzerindeki rolünün ve klinik uygulamadaki güçlüklerin değerlendirilmesi](https://alisanburak.com/en/wcp-2026-posterler/ev0135) [All WCP 2026 summaries](https://alisanburak.com/en/wcp-2026-posterler) --- Kaynak / Source: https://alisanburak.com/en/wcp-2026-posterler/k188 İletişim / Contact: Bağdat Caddesi, Veli Güneysu Apt. No:453 K:4 D:9, Suadiye / Kadıköy, İstanbul · +90 532 642 95 25 · info@alisanburak.com · https://alisanburak.com/bagdat-caddesi-psikoterapi-iletisim