Ontology: A conceptual representation of medical information that computers can understand and process.
The fact that people use different terminology to mean the same thing presents a challenge – especially in the healthcare industry, where access to and understanding of data are critical to patient care. The fact that computers can’t understand these differences further complicates the problem.
With more than one million concepts and over seven million combined medical facts, LinKBase® is the world's largest and most comprehensive medical ontology, which provides conceptual representation of human language for the healthcare industry.
LinKBase® can be applied to a broad range of applications that require the extraction of discrete data from unstructured or free text and turning that data into usable information.
LinKBase® technology breaks down medical language to a set of concepts with a common denominator, which can be expressed both by standardized terminologies and by natural language expressions in multiple languages. It includes sophisticated linguistic processing algorithms for:
- Mapping concept to semantically integrated medical terminologies
- Populating clinical data warehouses with elements captured in free text documents
- Automating medical coding to improve reimbursement
- Supporting patient safety and decision support applications
- Producing HL7 CDA compliant output