Combining Semantic and Lexical Methods for Mapping MedDRA to VCM Icons

Area of Science:

• Medical Informatics
• Ontology Engineering
• Medical Terminology

Background:

• Visualization of Concept in Medicine (VCM) uses icons to represent medical concepts, aiding visual summarization and text enrichment in medical software.
• Integrating VCM icons into user interfaces necessitates mapping standard medical terminologies to VCM.
• Medical Dictionary for Regulatory Activities (MedDRA) is a crucial standard medical terminology.

Purpose of the Study:

• To present a novel method for mapping MedDRA to VCM.
• To facilitate the use of VCM icons in medical software by bridging the gap with standard terminologies.

Main Methods:

• A hybrid approach combining semantic and lexical analysis for MedDRA to VCM mapping.
• Leveraging MedDRA's hierarchical structure and analyzing lemma groups within term labels.
• Utilizing manual mapping of lemma groups to VCM ontology concepts.

Main Results:

• Successfully developed and evaluated a method for mapping MedDRA to VCM.
• The method demonstrated effectiveness in translating standard medical terms into VCM icons.

Conclusions:

• The proposed semantic and lexical method provides a robust way to map MedDRA to VCM.
• This mapping is essential for the effective implementation of VCM icons in medical software and user interfaces.
• Further research can explore expanding this mapping and its applications.