Unified Medical Language System (UMLS)
What Is the Unified Medical Language System (UMLS)?
UMLS is a comprehensive set of files and software that integrates various health and biomedical standards and vocabularies to enable interoperability between different computer systems. It aims to bridge the gap between diverse medical terminologies and ensure that various systems can communicate effectively.
The UMLS encompasses three primary knowledge sources:
- Semantic network: This provides a structured framework of broad categories and their relationships.
- Metathesaurus: This includes terms and codes from multiple sources such as ICD-10-CM, CPT, LOINC, RxNorm, MeSH, and SNOMED CT.
- SPECIALIST lexicon and lexical tools: This consists of a large syntactic lexicon of general and biomedical English, along with tools for natural language processing.
The UMLS can be used to:
- Coordinate patient care among several departments within a hospital
- Link terms and codes between a patient’s doctor, pharmacy, and insurance company
- Process texts to extract concepts, knowledge, or relationships
- Extract specific terminologies from the metathesaurus
- Facilitate mapping between terminologies
- Develop a terminology service
- Develop an information retrieval system
- Research ontologies or terminologies
- Create and maintain a local terminology
How does UMLS improve healthcare?
By integrating key terminology, coding standards, and related resources, UMLS enhances the interoperability of biomedical information systems. This integration supports the development of more effective electronic health records (EHRs), which facilitate clearer communication of patient health histories and treatments. Improved EHRs can lead to better care coordination, reduced errors, and enhanced patient outcomes as patients transition between different healthcare providers.