Language Engineering as an Enabling Technology for Clinical Terminology Harmonisation

GALEN (Generalised Architecture for Languages, Encyclopaedias and Nomenclatures in Medicine) started as a research and development project in the Third Framework Programme to develop a semantically sound model of clinical terminology [1]. In the Fourth Framework’s Galen-In-Use project, the model is further expanded in the domain of surgical procedures and put in practice at various sites for different clinical purposes. The model is built using medical classifications and nomenclatures in various languages, each of them designed for a different purpose. Yet a specific characteristic of the model is its independence from any particular language or application. It is intended to deliver a large number of services to clinical end-user applications, including language understanding and generation.