The Need of a Semantic Layer between UMLS and Biomedical Information Systems

Abstract

Since biomedical information is scattered among a number of semantically or syntactically incompatible independent systems, a contemporary pragmatic approach is proposed in this study to make use of a semantic middle layer and common standards for information exchange between these systems. Biological and medical terminologies and ontologies take vital part in the background of life sciences information systems and the Unified Medical Language System (UMLS) is an inclusive source for biomedical vocabulary. Taking this fact into account, the need of new tools, which transform whole or part of UMLS content to a semantically sharable and reusable format, is also revealed to support knowledge-intensive biomedical actions.