Controlled medical vocabulary construction: methods from the Canon Group.

The recall and manipulation of medical knowledge and patient information motivates most medical informatics research. Before a computer program can do such sophisticated tasks, the knowledge or information must be represented in the computer. Researchers often see the information representation problem only as a means to an end; dealing with it to the degree necessary to allow them to test different strategies for information retrieval or manipulation. This tendency is reflected in the methods descriptions found in research papers. Although a data model may be presented, there is often little mention made of the vocabulary that is used by the system to represent concepts, or how that vocabulary was developed.