The Missouri Medical Informatics Thesaurus

Area of Science:

• Medical Informatics
• Information Science

Background:

• Existing terminologies inadequately cover the multi-disciplinary field of medical informatics.
• There is a need for a structured and accurate vocabulary to support research and practice in medical informatics.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a comprehensive and hierarchically structured thesaurus for the field of medical informatics.
• To ensure the thesaurus accurately reflects both the literature and user needs in medical informatics.

Main Methods:

• Utilized four primary methods of thesaurus construction.
• Incorporated principles of literary and user warrant in terminology selection.
• Organized approximately 2,000 terms into a hierarchical structure.

Main Results:

• Developed the Missouri Medical Informatics Thesaurus with approximately 2,000 sorted, hierarchical terms.
• The thesaurus provides more accurate coverage of the medical informatics field than existing resources.
• The structure allows for efficient revision to incorporate new terminology.

Conclusions:

• The Missouri Medical Informatics Thesaurus is a valuable, accurate, and adaptable resource for the medical informatics community.
• The thesaurus supports researchers by providing a standardized and comprehensive vocabulary.
• Its hierarchical structure and ease of revision make it suitable for a rapidly evolving discipline.