Computer Science Branch, LHNCBC, NLM

General Description:

Specific Projects:

• Unified Medical Language System (UMLS) Project: this project spans multiple administrative units within the NLM, the Lister Hill Center's Cognitive Science and Computer Science Branches prominent among them:
  • UMLS Metathesaurus: contains 152,444 biomedical concepts and 311,046 terms from fifteen different controlled vocabularies and classifications.
  • UMLS Semantic Network: provides a consistent categorization of all terms appearing within the Metathesaurus (by semantic type), as well as the permissible relationships between them (by semantic relation).
  • UMLS Information Sources Map (ISM): is a database describing various biomedical information sources and information on how to connect to them. A prototype ISM-based application, Sourcerer, is in development. This application accepts a user-generated query and uses the ISM and the other components of UMLS to automatically identify appropriate Internet-based information sources, and (where possible) connect to them and conduct queries on the user's behalf.
• COACH: an expert system for guiding Grateful Med/MEDLINE literature searches. A World-Wide Web-based service using COACH is under development.
• AI/RHEUM: expert consultation system for rheumatology.
  • CTX: shell for building criteria-table-based expert systems.
  • Rheumatology videodisk image library: 6,300 still images and 15 minutes of full-motion video
• AI/COAG: expert system for consulting on blood coagulation problems.
• Medical Informatics Elective: annual 8-week course for medical students.
• MedIndEx Project: developing/testing frame-based/knowledge-based interactive computer systems for assisting the indexing of the contents of MEDLINE, using the MeSH controlled vocabulary.
• Machine Learning Project: the study of computer programs which can not only manipulate knowledge, but acquire it as well. One such application, INVESTIGATOR, is under development.

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