François Kohler

Evaluation of the Unified Medical Language System as a Medical Knowledge Source

OBJECTIVEnThe authors evaluated the use of the Unified Medical Language System (UMLS) as a medical knowledge source for the representation of medical procedures in the MAOUSSC system.nnnDESIGNnMAOUSSC, a multiaxial coding system, was used for the representation of 1500 procedures from 15 clinical specialties, using UMLS concepts (augmented by full sources for three new vocabularies being added to the UMLS) and relationships whenever possible. Evaluation criteria for the UMLS included (1) completeness of representation of concepts and of inter-concept relationships, (2) consistency in the categorization of both concepts and inter-concept relationships, and (3) usability, including adaptability of the UMLS to a foreign language (French), its suitability to a geographic region with different medical practices than the USA, and issues relative to the annual update changes in the test vocabularies.nnnRESULTSnDuring the MAOUSSC trial, the number of missing concepts or relationships identified in the augmented UMLS sources was deemed to be inconsequential relative to overall project goals. Missing UMLS inter-concept relationships were identified, although they were small in number. Some inconsistencies in the UMLS were noted, especially in the area of hierarchic relationships.nnnCONCLUSIONnAfter UMLS was used for five years as a knowledge source for representing 1500 complex medical procedures in MAOUSSC, its value is considered significant. Future editions of the UMLS are expected to improve representation of inter-concept relationships and global consistency.

A Web Terminology Server Using UMLS for the Description of Medical Procedures

The Model for Assistance in the Orientation of a User within Coding Systems (MAOUSSC) project has been designed to provide a representation for medical and surgical procedures that allows several applications to be developed from several viewpoints. It is based on a conceptual model, a controlled set of terms, and Web server development. The design includes the UMLS knowledge sources associated with additional knowledge about medico-surgical procedures. The model was implemented using a relational database. The authors developed a complete interface for the Web presentation, with the intermediary layer being written in PERL. The server has been used for the representation of medico-surgical procedures that occur in the discharge summaries of the national survey of hospital activities that is performed by the French Health Statistics Agency in order to produce inpatient profiles. The authors describe the current status of the MAOUSSC server and discuss their interest in using such a server to assist in the coordination of terminology tasks and in the sharing of controlled terminologies.

A system that facilitates the orientation within procedure nomenclatures through a semantic approach

The representation of medical concepts should provide the flexibility required to support several purposes. We have implemented a model in which medical terms are represented in a standard format based on a semantic description of the terms. We have focused on the description of procedures. Underlying this project is the assumption that information about medical procedures is crucial in the healthcare system. A prototype has been developed for urology. Because of the large number of terms in the Unified Medical Language System (UMLS) and the abundance of links between them, we have experimented in the use of the UMLS as the foundation for our concept base. We assess the usefulness of this approach and discuss its improvements.

Student's Setup to Access a WEDS

This research1 is part of the French-speaking Virtual Medical University (UMVF2) project. French educational medicine system is shifting from local evaluation to national evaluation. Therefore that could allow students to share pedagogical resources, and to access inter-university courses from any place. Moreover, the medicine-educational-process does not only take place at the university but also in the hospital, at home or in an office. At home, students need to adjust their computing environment in order to receive and view the educational resources supplied by the UMVF-WEDS (Web-Based Education Delivery Systems). In the setup-stage, he may need some help, according to his computing qualification level. Therefore we provide him with a setup-program.