MedIndEx system: medical indexing expert system

摘要

This report describes the MedIndEx System, a prototype for interactive knowledge-based indexing of the medical literature, being developed in an ongoing research project at the Lister Hill National Center for Biomedical Communications, National Library of Medicine. We first review current indexing practice, which, although performed interactively, relies heavily on published tools. We then discuss knowledge-based systems using frames. The prototype, which uses knowledge-base (KB) frames to guide indexers in completing indexing frames, defined as KB frames linked to specific documents, is described subsequently. It produces as output not only a set of indexing frames for each document, but also conventional MeSH index terms, some of which are generated by inferencing rules encoded in the KB frames. Next, the various types of assistance provided by the system are presented and explained with examples. The report concludes by summarizing the research activities and accomplishments to date and plans for continued development of the system.