Alternative Ways for Knowledge Collection, Indexing and Robust Language Retrieval

R. H. Baud; C. Lovis; A.-M. Rassinoux; J.-R. Scherrer

doi:10.1055/s-0038-1634563

Methods of Information in Medicine, Table of Contents

Methods Inf Med 1998; 37(04/05): 315-326
DOI: 10.1055/s-0038-1634563

Original Article

Schattauer GmbH

Alternative Ways for Knowledge Collection, Indexing and Robust Language Retrieval

Authors

R. H. Baud

¹Division of Medical Informatics, Geneva University Hospital, Switzerland
C. Lovis

²Department of Internal Medicine, Geneva University Hospital, Switzerland
A.-M. Rassinoux

³Division of Biomedical Informatics, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA
J.-R. Scherrer

¹Division of Medical Informatics, Geneva University Hospital, Switzerland

Abstract

Definitions are provided of the key entities in knowledge representation for Natural Language Processing (NLP). Starting from the words, which are the natural components of any sentence, both the role of expressions and the decomposition of words into their parts are emphasized. This leads to the notion of concepts, which are either primitive or composite depending on the model where they are created. The problem of finding the most adequate degree of granularity for a concept is studied. From this reflection on basic Natural Language Processing components, four categories of linguistic knowledge are recognized, that are considered to be the building blocks of a Medical Linguistic Knowledge Base (MLKB). Following on the tracks of a recent experience in building a natural language-based patient encoding browser, a robust method for conceptual indexing and query of medical texts is presented with particular attention to the scheme of knowledge representation.

Keywords

Natural Language Processing - Knowledge Representation - Nomenclature - Medical Modelling - Electronic Patient Record

Full Text

References

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