A computational model of information retrieval with UMLS.

A high level representation of data would clarify the complex collection of medical concepts, terms and relationships derived from standard classifications that the Unified Medical Language System contains. A conceptual model is described which represents the data structure. A second objective of this conceptual model is to provide users with the capability to build queries to information databases as easily as possible on the basis of this data structure. The methods used to build this model are semantic networks and conceptual graphs. The object-oriented computational model which implements this conceptual model is detailed. It reuses part of the generic C++ classes of the National Institutes of Health library. New classes are added to this library to implement the needed functionalities.