Abstract:
The creation of controlled medical terminologies is a central challenge in the development
of electronic patient records. In the T-HELPER patient-record system, designed for the care of patients with HIV diease, the IVORY
module allows health-care workers to compose textual progress notes by making selections
from menus generated automatically from a controlled medical terminology. Construction
of this IVORY terminology required extensive design sessions with a team of computer
scientists and an expert physician. Refinement of the terminology was only possible
when the design team could envision how the completed T-HELPER system would be used in the context of clinical practice. Development of controlled
medical terminologies is a significant problem in knowledge acquisition. Techniques
used to acquire and represent clinical concepts for the purpose of building decision-support
systems also are appropriate for the construction of controlled terminologies such
as the one in T-HELPER.
Keywords:
Controlled Medical Terminology - Knowledge Acquisition - Participatory Design - T-H
ELPER System - IVORY System