title: Development of a controlled medical terminology: knowledge acquisition and knowledge representation.
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 disease, 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.
authors.affiliation: Section on Medical Informatics, Stanford University School of Medicine, CA, USA.
authors.forename: M A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Musen
authors.forename: K E
authors.initials: KE
authors.lastname: Wieckert
authors.forename: E T
authors.initials: ET
authors.lastname: Miller
authors.forename: K E
authors.initials: KE
authors.lastname: Campbell
authors.forename: L M
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: Fagan
mesh_terms: D001185:Artificial Intelligence; D003661:Decision Support Techniques; D006801:Humans; D012985:Software Design; D009626:Terminology as Topic; D018875:Vocabulary, Controlled