MEDICAL TEXT STRUCTURING AND SELECTION SYSTEM

A message originator (fig. 1) is presented with a tree of phrase choices (22) organized from broad to specific categories, with the selections in more specific categories directed by the originator's selections in the broader categories. The selections relate to a patient's medical condition (figs. 4, 5, and 6) and observations of a health care provider, with broader categories indicating general body systems and narrower categories indicating specific items, including values for properties of an item described by other selections on the path. The text of the message (66) is also presented to the originator, who can then edit the message as text (68). The text (66) is derivable from the tree structure selections, or path, taken from the originator and the interspersed free form text.