Fusion techniques in biomedical information retrieval

Abstract

For difficult cases clinicians usually use their experience and also the information found in textbooks to determine a diagnosis. Computer tools can help them supply the relevant information now that much medical knowledge is available in digital form. A biomedical search system such as developed in the Khresmoi project (that this chapter partially reuses) has the goal to fulfil information needs of physicians. This chapter concentrates on information needs for medical cases that contain a large variety of data, from free text, structured data to images. Fusion techniques will be compared to combine the various information sources to supply cases similar to an example case given. This can supply physicians with answers to problems similar to the one they are analyzing and can help in diagnosis and treatment planning.