Unified Medical Language System® (UMLS®)
UMLS Applications
NLM Applications
- PubMed® offers free access to MEDLINE® (with links to participating on-line journals), and other related databases.
- The NLM Gateway allows users to search in multiple retrieval systems at the U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM). The current Gateway searches MEDLINE and OLDMEDLINE using PubMed, LOCATORplus, AIDS Meetings, HSRProj, and MedlinePlus®.
- Medical terms can be difficult to remember, and often there are many names for a single concept (e.g., cancer of the colon, colonic neoplasm, colon cancer, etc.). Thus, ClinicalTrials.gov uses the UMLS to automatically add words related to those that searchers enter.
- NLM Indexing Initiative uses the UMLS as a major component in investigating automated indexing methods.
Other Applications
Many other institutions and individuals are applying the UMLS Knowledge Sources and lexical programs. Here are a few examples.
- National Guidelines Clearinghouse, an AHRQ initiative, is a public resource for evidence-based clinical practice guidelines.
- National Quality Measures Clearinghouse, sponsored by AHRQ, is a public repository for evidence-based quality measures and measure sets.
- NCI Thesaurus and Enterprise Vocabulary Services includes reference terminology and related vocabulary resources to help researchers, clinicians, and administrators identify types of cancer, treatments, and other cancer related topics.
