Using a terminology server and consumer search phrases to help patients find physicians with particular expertise.

Overview

OBJECTIVES: To design and implement a real world application using a terminology server to assist patients and physicians who use common language search terms to find specialist physicians with a particular clinical expertise. METHOD: Terminology servers have been developed to help users encoding of information using complicated structured vocabulary during data entry tasks, such as recording clinical information. We describe a methodology using Personal Health Terminology trade mark and a SNOMED CT-based hierarchical concept server. RESULTS: Construction of a pilot mediated-search engine to assist users who use vernacular speech in querying data which is more technical than vernacular. CONCLUSION: This approach, which combines theoretical and practical requirements, provides a useful example of concept-based searching for physician referrals.