The Future of the UMLS Semantic Network
A workshop
organized on April 7-8, 2005
at the U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM) in
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The Semantic Network is one of three knowledge sources developed and distributed by the National Library of Medicine as part of the Unified Medical Language System® (UMLS®) project, along with the Metathesaurus® and the SPECIALIST lexicon. The Semantic Network was created in an effort to provide a semantic framework for the UMLS and its constituent vocabularies. Unlike the Metathesaurus, the Semantic Network is a small structure composed of 135 high-level categories called semantic types. It is organized in two single-inheritance hierarchies: one for Entity and one for Event. In addition to is a, 53 kinds of relationships are defined in the Semantic Network, which are used to represent over 6,700 relations – hierarchical and associative – among semantic types. Semantic types from the Semantic Network are linked to Metathesaurus concepts by the categorization link established by the Metathesaurus editors: Each concept is categorized with at least one semantic type from the Semantic Network, independently of its hierarchical position in the source vocabularies. Fifteen collections of semantic types, called semantic groups, have been defined in order to partition Metathesaurus concepts in a smaller number of semantically consistent groups.
Reported applications of the Semantic Network include natural language processing (NLP) and text mining (e.g., to suggest or validate relations among entities identified in text), information retrieval and navigation (e.g., to constrain search or display of UMLS concepts with respect to semantic types) and alignment and interoperability (e.g., to help find similarity among concepts based on similarity among high-level categories). Additionally, the categorization of Metathesaurus concepts allows users to select all Metathesaurus concepts corresponding to a given category (e.g. cancers, through the semantic type Neoplastic Process). More generally, the overarching structure provided by Semantic Network enables the analysis of differences between relations asserted among concepts in the Metathesaurus and among the corresponding semantic types in the Semantic Network.
Unlike the other two knowledge sources, the Semantic Network has been essentially stable over the last ten years. However, some of its users have suggested changes regarding coverage (additional semantic types and relations), content (update to reflect current biomedical science), organization (support for multiple inheritance) and compatibility with other ontologies (compliance with ontological principles). Although less crucial to its mission, changes in formalism (e.g., description logics) have also been suggested.
NLM is holding a workshop designed to foster discussions about possible evolution of the UMLS Semantic Network. The goals are: to identify current limitations of the Semantic Network and their impact on applications and maintenance of the network itself and to analyze and discuss suggestions for changing and improving the Semantic Network.
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The Semantic Network Workshop will be held in the Natcher Building (building 45) on the National Institutes of Health campus. Please refer to the visitor information section for maps and directions. The following web site provides a list of hotels convenient to the NIH: http://www.cc.nih.gov/about/visitor/hotels.shtml .
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Program
Thursday, April 7,
2005 (Natcher
Building, Room A)
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Introduction |
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Betsy L. Humphreys,
Deputy Director, NLM Welcome |
|
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The UMLS
Semantic Network |
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9:30-10:30 |
Alexa T. McCray, |
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Reported
uses |
|
| |
Kin Wah Fung, NLM |
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| |
Yehoshua Perl, New Jersey Institute of Technology |
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Coffee break |
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Structural
issues |
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Yehoshua Perl, New Jersey Institute of Technology Enriching and designing metaschemas for the UMLS Semantic Network |
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James Geller, New
Jersey Institute of Technology |
|
12:30-13:30 |
Lunch |
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Ontological
issues |
|
13:30 | |
Anand Kumar, IFOMIS, |
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| 14:30 |
Barry Smith,
University at |
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Limitations
for natural language processing |
|
14:30-15:30 |
Thomas C. Rindflesch, NLM |
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15:30-16:00 |
Coffee break |
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Limitations
for semantic integration |
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Anita Burgun, The UMLS Semantic Network: Support for semantic integration and reasoning |
Friday, April 8, 2005
(Natcher
Building, Room A)
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Limitations
for uses in clinical systems |
|
9:00-10:00 |
James J. Cimino, |
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Limitations
for UMLS maintenance |
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10:00-11:00 |
Olivier Bodenreider, NLM |
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11:00-11:30 |
Coffee break |
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11:30-12:30 |
Stuart J. Nelson,
NLM |
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12:30-13:30 |
Lunch |
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A
summary of issues and suggestions |
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13:30-14:00 |
Olivier Bodenreider, NLM |
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Discussion:
Possible evolutions |
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Moderator: Betsy L. Humphreys |
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14:00-15:00 |
Panel discussion: Commentary on proposed evolution Olivier Bodenreider, Anita Burgun, James
J. Cimino, Alexa T. McCray,
Stuart J. Nelson, Thomas C. Rindflesch, Barry Smith |
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15:00-16:00 |
Suggestions and questions from the audience |
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Visitor information
NIH Campus, Bldg. 45
http://orf.od.nih.gov/nihtour/building45.htm
The
DIRECTIONS
Participants are encouraged to take public transportation to
the NIH campus. The
By Subway
Take the Red Line and exit at the Medical Center Station. At
the top of the station's escalators, take the stairs or ramp to your left and
follow the path to the
By Air
The
By Train
Union Station serves the
By Taxi
From
From
From
Parking
All vehicles will be inspected. There are two entrances for
visitors who are driving to the campus:
A map of the NIH campus and general information about parking and driving to campus can be found at: http://www.nih.gov/od/ors/visitorsmap.pdf