title: SAPHIRE--an information retrieval system featuring concept matching, automatic indexing, probabilistic retrieval, and hierarchical relationships.
abstract: SAPHIRE (Semantic and Probabilistic Heuristic Information Retrieval Environment) is an experimental computer program designed to test new techniques in automated information retrieval in the biomedical domain. A main feature of the program is a concept-finding algorithm that processes free text to find canonical concepts. The algorithm is designed to handle a wide variety of synonyms and convert them to canonical form. This allows natural language to be used for query input and also serves as the basis for a new approach to automatic indexing based on a combination of probabilistic and linguistic methods.
authors.affiliation: Harvard Medical School, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Department of Radiology, Boston, Massachusetts 02115.
authors.forename: W R
authors.initials: WR
authors.lastname: Hersh
authors.forename: R A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Greenes
mesh_terms: D000043:Abstracting and Indexing; D000465:Algorithms; D016247:Information Storage and Retrieval; D008432:Mathematical Computing; D012984:Software