Coping with the variability of medical terms.
OBJECTIVE
To cope with medical terms, which present a high variability of expression through a single natural language, in the sense that any term may be reformulated in hundred of different ways.


METHODS
A typology of term variants is presented as a systematic approach in order to favour the implementation of an exhaustive solution. Then, an algorithm able to handle all variants is designed.


RESULTS
Using MetaMap, single terms are analyzed with a success rate varying between 68 and 88 %; the algorithm presented in this paper improves this situation.


CONCLUSIONS
This experience shows that a semantic driven method, based on a thesaurus, provides a satisfactory solution to the problem of variability of a single term. The presented typology is representative of most variants in a language.
Baud
Robert H
RH
Medical Informatics Division, University Hospitals of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland. Robert.Baud@dim.hcuge.ch
Ruch
Patrick
P
Gaudinat
Arnaud
A
Fabry
Paul
P
Lovis
Christian
C
Geissbuhler
Antoine
A
D000465:Algorithms; D016247:Information Storage and Retrieval; D009323:Natural Language Processing; D012660:Semantics; D009626:Terminology as Topic; D018875:Vocabulary, Controlled