title: The role of the UMLS in 'storing' and 'sharing' across systems.
abstract: We will argue that 'sharing', 're-use', 're-purposing', and 'addition' of health care information is difficult, intrinsically; that the best way to overcome the difficulty is to start doing it, as soon as possible, and that the UMLS Knowledge Sources provide the best place to start. We recommend that the UMLS be used as a default source of biomedical concept names and relationships, as a comprehensive, data-based, 'reference model', and as an example of a large, ecumenical, evolving, continuously updated source of re-usable health care information.
authors.affiliation: Lexical Technology, Inc, Alameda, CA 94501.
authors.forename: M S
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Tuttle
authors.forename: S J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Nelson
mesh_terms: D003200:Computer User Training; D003628:Database Management Systems / Q000145:classification / Q000458:organization & administration; D003695:Delivery of Health Care; D005103:Expert Systems; D006282:Health Personnel; D006751:Hospital Information Systems; D006801:Humans; D016247:Information Storage and Retrieval / Q000145:classification; D007256:Information Systems; D016490:Integrated Advanced Information Management Systems / Q000145:classification / Q000458:organization & administration; D008498:Medical Record Linkage; D016347:Medical Records Systems, Computerized; D011340:Problem Solving; D012660:Semantics; D012984:Software; D012985:Software Design; D013597:Systems Analysis; D017432:Unified Medical Language System / Q000145:classification / Q000458:organization & administration; D014584:User-Computer Interface; D014825:Vocabulary