Medical Informatics I: Principles of Database Design
Glossary:
Definitions of terms and names mentioned in Dr. Masys' lecture, with links to additional information.
Clinical decision support:
A clinical decision support system is a system that uses a set of clinical findings (signs, symptoms, laboratory data) to produce a ranked list of diagnoses that might explain (or be associated with) the clinical manifestations.
Codd, E.F.
The inventor of the relational data model of databases. A Relational Model of Data for Large Shared Data Banks by E. F. Codd
http://www.acm.org/classics/nov95/toc.html
DBMS (database management system)
A database management system (DBMS) is a complex set of software programs that controls the organization, storage and retrieval of data (fields, records and files) in a database. It also controls the security and integrity of the database. The DBMS accepts requests for data from the application program and instructs the operating system to transfer the appropriate data.
DTD (document type description)
The definition of a document type in SGML or XML, consisting of a set of mark-up tags and their interpretation.
EAV (entity-attribute-value) system:
An Entity-Attribute-Value (EAV) system is a means of simplifying the physical schema of a database. The logical schema differs greatly from the physical schema, whereas in a conventional database, the two do not differ appreciably. The user interface of a good EAV system conforms to the logical schema as much as possible, creating the illusion of conventional data organization. An EAV system must record the logical schema through metadata.
Web site: http://senselab.med.yale.edu/nadkarni/eav_CR_contents.htm
GenBank
GenBank is the NIH genetic sequence database, an annotated collection of all publicly available DNA sequences.
Web Site: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/Genbank/
HL7:
Health Level Seven (HL7) is an information exchange protocol used in medicine.
HL7 home page: http://www.hl7.org/
Medical Informatics:
Medical informatics is the "field that concerns itself with the cognitive, information processing and communication tasks of medical practice, education and research, including the information science and the technology to support these tasks."
[Source: R.A. Greenes and E.G. Shortliffe. Medical informatics: an emerging academic discipline and institutional priority. Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) February 23, 1990; 263(8):1114-1120.]
In practice, medical informatics is the application of technology to all aspects of health care information. It involves both the art and science of organizing medical knowledge and applying such knowledge for the purpose of preventing human disease and suffering. Technology is pervasive and necessary to handle and manipulate the growing body of medical knowledge. Technology winds its way throughout health care--from processing results of medical research to applying knowledge in clinical practice; from accessing and processing patient records to making decisions in evidence based practice; from telemedicine to knowledge-based and decision-support systems.
Medline:
A database of medical information from the world's largest Medical Library, the National Library of Medicine. MEDLINE provides access to over 11 million citations and is useful for both healthcare providers and consumers.
Web site: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/
MUMPS:
Massachusetts General Hospital Utility Multiprogramming System (MUMPS) is a programming language developed in the late 1960s. It is similar to BASIC, FORTRAN and C. A MUMPS standard was approved by ANSI in 1977.
Nelson, Ted:
Philosopher and computer scientist famous for coining the term "hypertext" and for his design of the Xanadu system, a "magic place of literary memory." Xanadu was designed to be a universal, instantaneous, hypertext publishing network.
Ted Nelson home page: http://www.sfc.keio.ac.jp/~ted/
Object-oriented database:
In an object-oriented database, data are stored as objects and are interpreted only by using the methods specified by their common structure and behavior. Relationships between objects are maintained, as are references between objects.
Oracle:
A popular relational database system software.
Web site: http://www.oracle.com/
PDQ System at the National Cancer Institute:
PDQ, NCI's comprehensive cancer database, contains peer-reviewed summaries on cancer treatment, screening, prevention, genetics, and supportive care; a registry of approximately 1,800 open and 10,300 closed cancer clinical trials from around the world; and directories of physicians, professionals who provide genetics services, and organizations that provide cancer care.
Web site: http://cancernet.nci.nih.gov/
Relational database:
A relational database is a database based on the model originally developed by E.F. Codd. Data in a relational database are organized in tables. A table is a collection of records, and each record is a collection of fields. Relationships between fields are established at retrieval time, establishing relational databases as dynamic systems.
SGML:
Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML) is a markup language that describes the relationship between a document's content and its structure. SGML allows document-based information to be shared and re-used across applications and computer platforms in an open, vendor-neutral format. The relationships between document elements are defined in a Document Type Definition (DTD). This is roughly analogous to a collection of field definitions in a database. Once a document is converted into SGML and the information has been 'tagged', it becomes a database-like document.
W3C's SGML page: http://www.w3.org/MarkUp/SGML/
Small Talk:
The pioneering object-oriented programming system developed by the Software Concepts Group, led by Alan Kay, at Xerox PARC in 1972. It includes a language (usually interpreted), a programming environment, and an extensive object library.
Web site: http://www.engin.umd.umich.edu/CIS/course.des/cis400/smalltalk/smalltalk.html
SQL:
Structured Query Language (SQL) is an industry-standard language for creating, updating and, querying relational database management systems.. SQL was developed by IBM in the 1970s for use in System R. It is the de facto standard as well as being an ISO and ANSI standard. It is often embedded in general purpose programming languages. The first SQL standard, in 1986, provided basic language constructs for defining and manipulating tables of data.
Introduction to SQL: http://w3.one.net/~jhoffman/sqltut.htm
Sybase:
A software vendor focused on database management software.
Web site: http://www.sybase.com/
XML:
Extensible Markup Language (XML), based on Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML) is used for transmission and storage of data. XML is exceedingly flexible because the definition of its terms are all included in the DTD (document type definition) associated with each document.
W3C's XML page: http://www.w3.org/XML/
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