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2009 MAY–JUNE No. 368
June 12, 2009 [posted]

Unified Medical Language System® (UMLS®) News

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MLSKS Transition

NLM® began moving the UMLS Knowledge Source Server (UMLSKS) from a research and development application to a fully-supported production system. Scheduled downtimes will be announced via e-mail to UMLSKS users and the UMLSUSERS Listserv. Unscheduled downtimes will occur during the transition effort. UMLSKS users will be redirected to a maintenance alert Web page during downtimes.

The first phase of this transition is expected to be completed on September 30, 2009. At that time, the legacy UMLSKS Version 5.0 Web interface will be retired. The version 6.0 Web interface is now available and all UMLSKS users should be using it. Version 6.0 Web Services API is also available for developers to begin migrating their applications. Version 5.0 API functionality will be available until April 2010. Applications using the Version 5.0 API will not function after April 2010.

2009AA Source Release Documentation

The complete 2009AA Source Release Documentation Web pages are available. These pages include two new tabs under "Statistics and sample data": Semantic Types and Source Overlap.

2009AA UMLS DVDs

2009AA UMLS DVDs were sent on May 15, 2009 to licensees who requested them. To receive a DVD, Contact NLM and include your license code in the message.

Next UMLS Webcast June 25, 2009

[this link was removed because it is no longer valid] Registration is available for the next UMLS Webcast "Processing sources vocabularies for representation in the UMLS Metathesaurus." It will be held on June 25, 2009 at 2:00 pm ET. The Webcast is a 20-30 minute presentation followed by a question-and-answer session. Captioning will be provided, and the Webcast will be archived and available online for later viewing.

Next UMLS Basics Class September 17, 2009

The next full-day, hands-on UMLS Basics training class will be offered at NLM on September 17, 2009. This class is free for participants and is worth 7.5 MLA Continuing Education (CE) contact hours. More information about the class is available from the National Training Center and Clearinghouse Web site.

UMLS Database Query Diagrams

UMLS Database Query Diagrams consisting of 12 use cases and corresponding sample query statements are now available. Each diagram illustrates a particular use case and how UMLS Metathesaurus files can be joined (or queried) to find relevant data for that use case. Database Query Diagrams were discussed in the April 23 Webcast "Using the UMLS sample data in MS Access."

By Rachel Kleinsorge
MEDLARS Management Section

Kleinsorge R. Unified Medical Language System® (UMLS®) News. NLM Tech Bull. 2009 May-Jun;(368):e19.