title: Using WordNet to improve the mapping of data elements to UMLS for data sources integration.
abstract: Each biomedical system has its own way of naming the pieces of information it contains, i.e., of defining its data elements (DEs). Integrating DEs facilitates the integration of biomedical resources. However, the mapping of DEs to the UMLS is ambiguous in many cases, when any correspondence is found at all. We propose to evaluate the potential contribution of a more general terminology: WordNet. Our method is based on synonyms, definitions, and structural properties of the terminologies. We applied it to a set of 474 DEs extracted from eleven biomedical sources. We show that WordNet can improve the direct mapping of DEs to UMLS when used to validate and disambiguate UMLS direct mappings. WordNet can also help identify indirect mappings of DEs to the UMLS.
authors.affiliation: EA3888, IFR 140, Faculté de Médecine, Université de Rennes I, Rennes, France. fleur.mougin@univ-rennes1.fr
authors.forename: Fleur
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Mougin
authors.forename: Anita
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Burgun
authors.forename: Olivier
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Bodenreider
mesh_terms: D019992:Databases as Topic; D004014:Dictionaries as Topic; D009323:Natural Language Processing; D013358:Subject Headings; D018511:Systems Integration; D009626:Terminology as Topic; D017432:Unified Medical Language System