Abstract:
GALEN is developing a Terminology Server to support the development and integration
of clinical systems through a range of key terminological services, built around a language-independent, re-usable, shared system of concepts – the
CORE model. The focus is on supporting applications for medical records, clinical
user interfaces and clinical information systems, but also includes systems for natural
language understanding, clinical decision support, management of coding and classification
schemes, and bibliographic retrieval. The Terminology Server integrates three modules:
the Concept Module which implements the GRAIL formalism and manages the internal representation
of concept entities, the Multilingual Module which manages the mapping of concept
entities to natural language, and the Code Conversion Module which manages the mapping
of concept entities to and from existing coding and classification schemes. The Terminology
Server also provides external referencing to concept entities, coercion between data
types, and makes its services available through a uniform applications programming
interface. Taken together these services represent a new approach to the development
of clinical systems and the sharing of medical knowledge.
Keywords:
Terminology Server - Natural Language Processing - Coding and Classification - Electronic
Medical Records - Knowledge Representation
