Automatic indexing of pathology data

A procedure for automated indexing of pathology diagnostic reports at the National Institutes of Health is described. Diagnostic statements in medical English are encoded by computer into the Systematized Nomenclature of Pathology (SNOP). SNOP is a structured indexing language constructed by pathologists for manual indexing. It is of interest that effective automatic encoding can be based upon an existing vocabulary and code designed for manual methods. Morphosyntactic analysis, a simple syntax analysis, matching of dictionary entries consisting of several words, and synonym substitutions are techniques utilized.