Accurate searching using XML and topic maps.

Abstract

Most clinical data is narrative text and often not accessible and searchable at the clinical workstation. We have therefore developed a search engine that allows indexing, searching and linking different kinds of data using web technologies. Text matching methods fail to represent implicit relationships between data, e.g. the relationship between HIV and AIDS. The ISO topic maps standard provides a data model that allows representing arbitrary relationships between resources. Such relationships form the basis for context sensitive searching and accurate search results. XML standards are used for the interchange of data relationships. Our approach has been applied to medical classification systems and clinical practice guidelines with promising results.