Reference: Campbell, K. E. & Musen, M. A. Creation of a Systematic Domain for Medical Care: The need for a Comprehensive Patient-Description Vocabulary. Amsterdam: North-Holland, Palexpo Geneva, Switzerland, 1992.
Abstract: Development of a systematic domain in an important step in the design of a computer application. Given such a domain, effective computer tools can be developed for manipulation of the formal elements it contains. The progress note could serve as the central element in the creation of a systematic domain for medical care, as it is already structured, and typically is the most comprehensive source of clinical information for any given patient. We have developed a progress-note generator called IVORY to explore how computer tools could be used within this domain. The most difficult part of our work has been the development of a patient-description vocabulary that is able to represent clinical findings about a patient with the same detail as that achieved by physicians in their progress notes. Current standard vocabularies cannot represent these findings at the granularity of a progess note, so a comprehensive patient-description vocabulary must be developed. Through our work on IVORY, we have identified three properties that such a vocabulary must have.