Medical language and knowledge base systems

P. L.M. Kerkhof*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

It is pointed out that the lack of standardized medical language limits the potential use of computers in medicine. Major obstacles include imprecise terminology, the limited scope of a thesaurus, problems related to knowledge engineering, discrepancies between information sources versus actual clinical cases, and the ever expanding range of synonyms and eponyms. Incorporation of a separate knowledge base containing equivalent expressions is indicated for the practical use of medical information systems. Application of this strategy to the Medwise computer diagnosis system yields an 11% better score when analyzing some hundred published case studies.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationBiomedical Engineering Perspectives
Subtitle of host publicationHealth Care Technologies for the 1990's and Beyond
PublisherPubl by IEEE
Pages1320-1321
Number of pages2
Editionpt 3
ISBN (Print)0879425598
Publication statusPublished - 1 Dec 1990
Externally publishedYes
EventProceedings of the 12th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society - Philadelphia, PA, USA
Duration: 1 Nov 19904 Nov 1990

Publication series

NameProceedings of the Annual Conference on Engineering in Medicine and Biology
Numberpt 3
ISSN (Print)0589-1019

Conference

ConferenceProceedings of the 12th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society
CityPhiladelphia, PA, USA
Period01/11/199004/11/1990

Cite this