Concepts, knowledge and language in healthcare information systems: follow-up 30 months later

The paper reviews the last IMIA-WG6 recommendations, issued along two themes: (1) how to better share common results and (2) how to conduct new research and development efforts. Some of the major discrepancies in the field are reviewed. The paper intends to offer insight into two areas, first, in the issue of knowledge representation and, second, in the science of meaning, incorporating the broad intersection of computational linguistics, semantics, conceptual approach, and denotation. The Ogden-Richards meaning triangle is used as a convenient organizing principle to maximize the scope of understanding among the different schools, particularly in areas of linguistics and semantics on the one side and denotation and conceptual approach on the other. In conclusion, there is a need for clarification and for more scientific pragmatism.