The Unified Medical Language System: toward a collaborative approach for solving terminologic problems.
The approach taken by the Unified Medical Language System (UMLS), in which disparate terminology systems are integrated, has allowed construction of an electronic thesaurus (the Metathesaurus) that avoids imposing any restrictions upon the content, structure, or semantics of the source terminologies. As such, the UMLS has served as a unifying paradigm by providing appropriate links among equivalent entities that are used in different contexts or for different purposes. It accordingly [...]
Author(s): Campbell, K E, Oliver, D E, Shortliffe, E H
DOI: 10.1136/jamia.1998.0050012