Practical Considerations for Exploiting the World Wide Web to Create Infobuttons James J. Cimino, Jianhua Li, Mureen Allen, Leanne M. Currie, Mark Graham, Viktoria Janetzki, Nam-Ju Lee, Suzanne Bakken, Vimla L. Patel Department of Biomedical Informatics Columbia University

Resolving Clinician Information Needs Information Need Triggered By Clinical Data 1 Extract Context Data 2 Context Matching 3 Question Selection 4 Presentation of Query Results 7 Presentation Of Questions 5 Query a Resource 6 Infobutton Manager Infobutton

Issues for Exploiting Resources Understand the information need Identify appropriate resource Translation of context data for querying Interaction with the resource

Interactions With On-line Resources Simple link Concept-based link Simple search Concept-based search Intelligent agent Calculator

Match concept of interest to class(es) Identify context based on class(es) Retrieve question(s) for context Sort by “priority” Return HTML page of links (URLs)

Interactions With On-line Resources Simple link Concept-based link Simple search Concept-based search Intelligent agent Calculator Question has “hardcoded” URL e.g.: “

Interactions With On-line Resources Simple link Concept-based link Simple search Concept-based search Intelligent agent Calculator

Interactions With On-line Resources Simple link Concept-based link Simple search Concept-based search Intelligent agent Calculator Translate concept of interest to controlled term Find controlled term in data dictionary Obtain term attribute for constructing URL from data dictionary Construct URL, e.g.: + cl

Interactions With On-line Resources Simple link Concept-based link Simple search Concept-based search Intelligent agent Calculator

Interactions With On-line Resources Simple link Concept-based link Simple search Concept-based search Intelligent agent Calculator Insert concept of interest into CGI function call as a parameter e.g.: + POTASSIUM.

Interactions With On-line Resources Simple link Concept-based link Simple search Concept-based search Intelligent agent Calculator

Interactions With On-line Resources Simple link Concept-based link Simple search Concept-based search Intelligent agent Calculator Translate concept of interest to controlled term Obtain term translation from data dictionary Insert translated term into CGI function call as a parameter e.g.: pubmed.gov/search.cgi?term=<>[MeSH+Terms] + Potassium. pubmed.gov/search.cgi?term=Potassium[MeSH+ Terms]

Interactions With On-line Resources Simple link Concept-based link Simple search Concept-based search Intelligent agent Calculator

Interactions With On-line Resources Simple link Concept-based link Simple search Concept-based search Intelligent agent Calculator Resource is not a simple document or search CGI Log-on, navigation or other interaction required Multiple context parameters used Agent: - parses context parameters - interacts with resource - parses results - presents summary - may modify links

Interactions With On-line Resources Simple link Concept-based link Simple search Concept-based search Intelligent agent Calculator

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Interactions With On-line Resources Simple link Concept-based link Simple search Concept-based search Intelligent agent Calculator No resource available Interaction too complex Create self-contained agent: - parses context parameters - constructs Web page - presents results - may have Infobuttons of its own

Interactions With On-line Resources Simple link Concept-based link Simple search Concept-based search Intelligent agent Calculator

Discussion Resources are available Simple interactions are usually possible Interaction method (format) issues: –“Give me a page” vs. “Give me the answer” –Standards needed for asking questions –Standards needed for passing parameters Representation (terminology) issues: –Clinical systems use homegrown “standards” –Resources (except PubMed) don’t use any standards (i.e., they are indexed by text word)

Conclusions Resources exist Creative solutions required Engaging resource providers is next step

Acknowledgments National Library of Medicine research grant National Library of Medicine training grant National Institute of Nursing Research