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CHV (Consumer Health Vocabulary) - Synopsis

Search CHV in the UMLS Metathesaurus
(requires a free UMLS license)

Web site:
http://consumerhealthvocab.chpc.utah.edu/CHVwiki/

Authority
The open-access and collaborative (OAC) consumer health vocabulary (CHV) is produced by the Biomedical Informatics Department at the University of Utah, in collaboration with Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, National Library of Medicine, and University of Wisconsin.. 

Purpose
OAC CHV is designed to complement the existing framework of the UMLS and to aid the needs of consumer health applications. It enables these applications to translate technical terms to consumer friendly language.

Description
OAC CHV connects informal, common words and phrases about health to technical terms used by health care professionals. It includes jargon, slang, ambiguous, and misspelled words as used by consumers and health care professionals. Due to its nature, OAC CHV includes concepts that are not represented by other source vocabularies within the Metathesaurus.

Metathesaurus Update Frequency
OAC CHV was last updated in the 2011AA Metathesaurus.

Sites Consulted

  1. Open Access, Collaborative Consumer Health Vocabulary Initiative [Internet].[Salt Lake City (UT)]: University of Utah, Biomedical Informatics Department; [cited 2011 May 13]. Available from: http://consumerhealthvocab.org/; Readme File: http://consumerhealthvocab.org/docs/README.pdf