PubMed Health⌕ Search
Home/Archive/PubMed

PubMed · 8472003

Coach: applying UMLS knowledge sources in an expert searcher environment.

L C Kingsland·A M Harbourt·E J Syed·P L Schuyler
View original source ↗Export metadata ↓

Abstract

With the development of the Unified Medical Language System (UMLS) Knowledge Sources, the National Library of Medicine (NLM) has produced a resource of great potential for improving the searching of MEDLINE. The Coach expert searcher system, an inhouse research project at NLM, is designed to help users of the GRATEFUL MED front-end software improve MEDLINE search and retrieval capabilities. This paper describes the Coach program, the knowledge sources it uses, and some of the ways it applies elements of the UMLS Metathesaurus to facilitate access to the biomedical literature.

Explore related subjects

Grateful MedHumansNational Library of Medicine (U.S.)Unified Medical Language SystemUnited StatesUser-Computer InterfaceJournal Article

Keep this discovery

Explore connections, maps & timelines

BibTeXRIS

L C Kingsland, A M Harbourt, E J Syed, P L Schuyler. 1993. Coach: applying UMLS knowledge sources in an expert searcher environment.. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/8472003/

Cite the original work for its findings. Save a collection to share your selection of sources.

KEEP EXPLORING

Related citations

PubMed2005

MEDLINE in the UK: pioneering the past, present and future.

This article provides a brief history of the development of the MEDLINE database and its huge impact within the UK, from its inception to the present time. The origins of MEDLINE can be traced back to a collection of books in the US Surgeon General's Office during the American Civil War and John Shaw Billings' decision, during 1867, to make this Library as complete as possible. From these beginnings, Index Medicus was developed in the early years of the 20th century, and electronic versions of the database began with the computerized on-demand search service MEDLARS in 1964 and then via CD-ROM and Internet Grateful Med to the web-based and free-to-all service, PubMed, in 1997. The response to PubMed was immediate and startling with usage increasing from 7 million searches per annum in 1996 to 400 million searches per annum in 2001 and the service continues to improve. MEDLINE providers are now offering mapping of natural language queries to the sophisticated indexing vocabulary (Medical Subject Headings, MeSH) and the provision of specific filters for different types of publication to improve searching efficiency, as well as links to full-text versions of the papers where available. The next steps are likely to involve an increased blurring of database and full-text boundaries, incorporating seamless access to the best available evidence within MEDLINE and a wide range of other information resources within a single search and to an increasing amount of full-text via various open-archive initiatives. As ever, the US National Library of Medicine is in the vanguard of research and further applications of its MEDLINE database for users within the UK will be awaited with great interest.

Grateful Med↗