BIB-VERSION:: CS-TR-v2.0
          ID:: STAN//CS-TR-97-1596
       ENTRY:: October 13, 1997
ORGANIZATION:: Stanford University, Department of Computer Science
       TITLE:: Distributed Development of a Logic-Based Controlled Medical
               Terminology
        TYPE:: Thesis
        TYPE:: Technical Report
      AUTHOR:: Campbell, Keith Eugene
        DATE:: October 1997
       PAGES:: 289
    ABSTRACT:: A controlled medical terminology (CMT) encodes clinical data:
               patient's physical signs, symptoms, and diagnoses.
               Application developers lack a robust CMT and the
               methodologies needed to coordinate terminology development
               within and between projects.

               In this dissertation, I argue that if a formal terminology
               model is adopted and integrated into a change-management
               process that supports dynamic CMTs, then CMTs can evolve from
               being an impediment to application development and data
               analysis to a valuable resource.

               My thesis states that such an evolutionary approach can be
               supported by using semantics-based methods for managing
               concurrent terminology development, thereby bypassing the
               disadvantages of traditional lock-based approaches common in
               database systems. By allowing developers to work concurrently
               on the terminology while relying on semantics-based methods
               to resolve the "collisions" that are inevitable in concurrent
               work, a scalable approach to terminology development can be
               supported.

               This dissertation discusses CMT development in terms of three
               research topics:

               1. Representation of Clinical Data

               2. Concurrency Control

               3. Configuration Management
       NOTES:: [Adminitrivia V1/Prg/19971013]
         END:: STAN//CS-TR-97-1596