The Unified Medical Language System: an informatics research collaboration

• Published in: Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association : JAMIA 1998-01, Vol.5 (1), p.1-11
• Main Authors: Humphreys, B L, Lindberg, D A, Schoolman, H M, Barnett, G O
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Computer Communication Networks; Focus on the Unified Medical Language System; History of medicine; History, 20th Century; Hospital Information Systems; Systems Integration; Unified Medical Language System - history; Unified Medical Language System - organization & administration; Unified Medical Language System - trends
• ISSN: 1067-5027; 1527-974X
• DOI: 10.1136/jamia.1998.0050001

In 1986, the National Library of Medicine (NLM) assembled a large multidisciplinary, multisite team to work on the Unified Medical Language System (UMLS), a collaborative research project aimed at reducing fundamental barriers to the application of computers to medicine. Beyond its tangible products, the UMLS Knowledge Sources, and its influence on the field of informatics, the UMLS project is an interesting case study in collaborative research and development. It illustrates the strengths and challenges of substantive collaboration among widely distributed research groups. Over the past decade, advances in computing and communications have minimized the technical difficulties associated with UMLS collaboration and also facilitated the development, dissemination, and use of the UMLS Knowledge Sources. The spread of the World Wide Web has increased the visibility of the information access problems caused by multiple vocabularies and many information sources which are the focus of UMLS work. The time is propitious for building on UMLS accomplishments and making more progress on the informatics research issues first highlighted by the UMLS project more than 10 years ago.