Schuyler P L, Hole W T, Tuttle M S, Sherertz D D
Medical Subject Headings Section, National Library of Medicine, Bethesda, MD 20894.
Bull Med Libr Assoc. 1993 Apr;81(2):217-22.
The UMLS Metathesaurus is a compilation of names, relationships, and associated information from a variety of biomedical naming systems representing different views of biomedical practice or research. The Metathesaurus is organized by meaning, and the fundamental unit in the Metathesaurus is the concept. Differing names for a biomedical meaning are linked in a single Metathesaurus concept. Extensive additional information describing semantic characteristics, occurrence in machine-readable information sources, and how concepts co-occur in these sources is also provided, enabling a greater comprehension of the concept in its various contexts. The Metathesaurus is not a standardized vocabulary; it is a tool for maximizing the usefulness of existing vocabularies. It serves as a knowledge source for developers of biomedical information applications and as a powerful resource for biomedical information specialists.
统一医学语言系统(UMLS)元词表是一个由各种生物医学命名系统中的名称、关系及相关信息汇编而成的集合,这些命名系统代表了生物医学实践或研究的不同视角。元词表按语义进行组织,其基本单元是概念。生物医学意义的不同名称在单个元词表概念中相互关联。同时还提供了大量额外信息,用于描述语义特征、在机器可读信息源中的出现情况以及概念在这些源中的共现方式,从而能在不同语境中更全面地理解概念。元词表不是一个标准化词汇表;它是一个用于最大化现有词汇表效用的工具。它是生物医学信息应用开发者的知识源,也是生物医学信息专家的强大资源。