Representation and Database Design for Clinical Information

Semantic discourse analysis and sublanguage methods are used to create a database model from free-text echocardiography reports. This model dictates the object structure of a semantic model that is implemented in a relational database form and evaluated for representational adequacy. The semantic frame structure of this relational patient database is a flexible projection of a hierarchical dictionary. The Unified Medical Language System (UMLS) Metathesaurus could be used as such a dictionary. The result is a structured clinical report database model that is built on a standard dictionary and is generalizable to other domains.