Abstract
As part of the Unified Medical Language System (UMLS) project, a large metathesaurus (Meta-1) was built. We have adapted a Hypercard browser of Meta-1 (MetaCard) to enable a user to continue the browsing process, extending from the Metathesaurus to a variety of different knowledge sources. These knowledge sources include Current Disease Descriptions (CDD), Physicians Data Query (PDQ), and Mendelian Inheritance in Man (MIM). Metacard can also be linked to Grateful Med, the NLM program which is used to search MEDLINE. A user can, with minimal training, use MetaCard to access these four different knowledge sources. The links (how one goes from one knowledge source to another) have been built on the basis of disease names. In organizing these links, it was helpful to use CDD as an additional source of knowledge about how diseases are named in various sources. Further plans are to expand the use of the Metathesaurus in building links to the knowledge sources. The question with each method of linking used will be to what extent the method provides a robust linkage whose utility can be anticipated. While future refinements or developments of links may give additional functionality, the current linkages are sufficient to provide a useful browsing tool. We believe that this is so because much of the knowledge in each of these sources is organized around diseases. Navigation is easy because of the similarities of the Hypercard interfaces to each of the knowledge sources; a common set of conventions (e.g., point and click) helps make it work.
Full text
PDF
Selected References
These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.
- Blois M. S. Clinical judgment and computers. N Engl J Med. 1980 Jul 24;303(4):192–197. doi: 10.1056/NEJM198007243030405. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Haynes R. B., McKibbon K. A., Walker C. J., Ryan N., Fitzgerald D., Ramsden M. F. Online access to MEDLINE in clinical settings. A study of use and usefulness. Ann Intern Med. 1990 Jan 1;112(1):78–84. doi: 10.7326/0003-4819-112-1-78. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]