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Identifying consumer-friendly display (CFD) names for health concepts
Qing T Zeng1, Tony Tse, Jon Crowell
1DSG, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
AMIA ... Annual Symposium Proceedings. AMIA Symposium
|June 17, 2006
Summary
We created consumer-friendly display (CFD) names for medical terms using text analysis and expert review. This method helps make health information more understandable for the public.
Area of Science:
- Medical Informatics
- Consumer Health Informatics
- Natural Language Processing
Background:
- The National Library of Medicine (NLM) Unified Medical Language System (UMLS) Metathesaurus contains complex medical terms.
- Translating these terms into easily understandable language for the public is a significant challenge in consumer health informatics.
Purpose of the Study:
- To develop and test a systematic methodology for creating consumer-friendly display (CFD) names for medical concepts.
- To improve the understandability of health information for the general public.
Main Methods:
- A corpus-based text analysis approach was employed, utilizing NLM MedlinePlus queries as a source of consumer language.
- Human review, facilitated by a collaborative web-based tool, was integrated into the process.
- 425 frequently occurring medical concepts were analyzed.
Main Results:
- A preliminary evaluation of 34 concepts and their assigned CFD names was conducted using a reading assessment questionnaire.
- Consumers (n=10) demonstrated a higher likelihood of understanding and recognizing the CFD names compared to alternative labels.
Conclusions:
- The developed methodology shows promise for creating effective consumer health vocabularies.
- The approach facilitates the display of understandable health information, enhancing patient comprehension and engagement.