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Mining Biomedical Data Using MMTx and UMLS 1593.1.1. Filtering Against a Specific VocabularyFiltering against a particular vocabulary set is advisable in cases wherein theuser has a very specific need to map to that vocabulary, such as mapping free textfrom clinical reports to a medical coding system such as SNOMED-CT. Unlessthere is a compelling reason (such as a license restriction), it is preferable to usethe entire Metathesaurus to give the best possible coverage. If a user is interestedin a particular vocabulary, the quickest way to check for its presence is to check:(http://www.nlm.nih.gov/research/umls/sources_by_categories.html), which listsa relatively current list of English vocabularies in UMLS.3.1.2. Filtering by Semantic TypeIt is worthwhile to take advantage of the classification of concepts in theMetathesaurus into semantic types when the data to be extracted falls into largecategories and there is no explicit requirement to map to a particular vocabulary.Semantic types (such as deformities, embryonic structures, chemicals, andso on) allow the data miner to capture data categories across vocabularies withoutknowing the details of either the vocabulary or the various concepts inUMLS. A webpage listing semantic types available in the UMLS can be foundat http://mmtx.nlm.nih.gov/semanticTypes.shtml, and the definitive listing ofsemantic types for a particular distribution of UMLS can be found in nls/mmtx/data/2004/mmtx/semdef. A typical use case may be to mine MEDLINE for statisticalassociations between semantic types or concepts.3.1.3. Filtering by Specific ConceptsIn this case, input data is filtered by a small group of manually selected conceptsthat span one or more semantic types and vocabularies. One such use case thatMMTx and UMLS have already been used for is mapping clinical reports to amanually selected set of 80 particular medical problems (6). If it is not knownwhether the UMLS Metathesaurus contains the specification of the desired concept/s,the UMLS Knowledge Source Server (UMLSKS) can be used to search forthe concepts in UMLS as shown in Fig. 3. The UMLSKS is located at http://umlsks.nlm.nih.gov/kss/servlet/Turbine/template/admin,user,KSS_login.vm and itsuse requires registration and signing of the UMLS license agreement (Note 1).3.1.4. UMLS Lacks the Required ContentIn cases wherein UMLS does not contain the required vocabulary, semanticnetwork, or concepts, it is best to directly contact the UMLS development team.The team is generally receptive to reasonable requests, although the inclusion ofany new vocabulary will have to be justified against the NLM mandate and willtake a considerable amount of time. Semantic types and concepts can be added

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