Development & Integration of TCM Databases

[Guest guest]

Hi All,

 

Della Lawhon " <dlawhon raised a vital point for the

future of the TCM professions - the weaknesses in how we index

and search our literature and the scarcity of databases that cover

TCM literature [in our languages].

 

Top search facilities need several major components that are linked

in a completely integrated system:

 

(a) The raw data (abstracts and/or full text with all necessary

reference fields) in digital form;

 

(b) Heavy professional editing of the raw data to standardise the

terminology and remove typos as much as possible BEFORE the

data are mounted;

 

© Thorough indexing of all keywords in all search-fields of

technical articles.

 

(d) Development of an integrated and dynamic (constantly updated)

Thesarus to suggest (and link automatically to) similar

terms/concepts/synonyms;

 

(e) Development of powerful and flexible Boolean Search engine

that can search in any or all of the specified search-fields.

 

As one of the largest professional discussion groups in TCM, and

with professional translators and publishers aboard, CHA is in a

unique position to play a role in development of a TCM Thesaurus

to act as the backbone of a powerful Boolean search engine.

 

IMO [and also in relation to past CHA discussion on the

importance of understanding Chinese and TCM Terminology], the

sooner we/CHA sets up a database of DEFINITIONS of TCM

Terms, the better. The Publishers and scholars of Chinese in CHA

would have key roles in this work.

 

The TCM DEFINITIONS database could have at least the following

fields:

 

1. Chinese GB Characters for each TCM term

2. Chinese Big5 Characters for each TCM term

3. The Pinyin Terms [with and without its accents and/or numbers]

for 1 and 2, above.

4. The English translation for 3, above

5. Hyperlinked Synonyms for 1, 2, 3 and 4, above.

 

Later, when this is done, the Thesaurus [based on masterpieces

like the Wiseman & Feng Practical Dictionary of CM, etc] could be

developed.

 

Re (a), above, we need to consider what data to use. IMO, we

should aim to access at least THREE main types of data:

(1) Published, peer-reviewed data from the journals;

(2) Data from selected textbbooks [if the authors/publishers agree];

(3) " Grey Literature " - clinical reports, monographs, academic and

commercial WWW sites, etc.

 

Free data are available in several sources: PubMed Medline,

Acubriefs, commercial WWW sites [like RMHI, Blue Poppy,

Acupuncture.com etc, etc]. Data available for a fee are available

from TCMLARS, TradiMed, etc

 

Unfortunately, the data (although extensive) are spread across very

diverse sites. There is no standardisation of terminology, language,

spelling, persentation, etc. Also, there is no integrated interface to

search all of those sites easily.

 

Have any of you access to TCMLARS and its related TCM

databases?

 

TCMLARS has two versions, English and Chinese; the Chinese

version is much more extensive. Hopefully, the future development

of translation technology will allow access to most of the Chinese

material.

 

Last year, the TCMLARS subscription fee was:

1-3 users: $800/year, unlimited access to English databases

4-10 users: $1200/year, unlimited access to English Dbs

11-20 users: $1500/year, unlimited access to English Dbs

21-250 users: $2000/year, unlimited access to English Dbs

>250 users: $4000/year, unlimited access to English DBs

 

Could the owners of TCMLARS be persuaded to make their data

available to CHA on the GROUP SUBSCCRIPTION basis? [The

annual cost of individual access is too high for me to consider but a

group subscription for >800 members might bring the individual

cost to a more reasonable level if we each paid a little; 4000$/year

divided by 800 people would be only 5$/head/year!!].

 

I hope that these developments will be realised in my lifetime. Any

takers?

 

Do any of you know rich philantropists or Sinophiles who could be

persuaded to finance - even partially - this mammoth project?

 

Best regards,

Phil

 

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

 

Delia wrote:

> This is great Todd! Boolean operators enable much more specific

> searching. Now if only we could access our journal literature

> that way! Because of the technology Crane is using, you can

> search for any word that appears in the actual message. Imagine

> if you could only retrieve words from the Subject line! This is

> the situation we have now with our journal literature in AOM: we

> can only search for words (relating to a topic) in the Title

> fields. That's because only NLM is writing abstract and assigning

> subject terms. I strongly believe that OM theory is critical to

> our medicine and I don't want to see our literature described and

> accessed only through biomedical terms!! It gives us control of

> the profession in some profound ways; wasn't it Confucius who

> emphasized the primacy of naming? We have not developed to this

> point, but it is definitely time! Other professions index and

> abstract the journals articles in their profession; this enables

> the profession to have control over the literature and gives the

> practitioners of the field access to it. I am seeking input from

> practitioners, OM authors, publishers and teachers on this issue.

> Please contact me if you would like to share your opinion or learn

> more about this project. A number of parties I'm working with have

> begun to realize the limits of doing research with our literature;

> specifically the Libraries of Oriental Medicine (LOOM), Tufts

> Medical School-NIH and the NLM. But I need your input; you will be

> both the users and the subjects of this electronic product.

> Essentially, we're talking about either extending Medline or

> developing our own OM Medline. I'm eager to talk with any and all

> of you about how you search for literature and the type of access

> you'd like. I'm looking for senior clinicians & thinkers in our

> field to plan the best way forward so that the profession is well

> served. Best, Della Lawhon

 

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

 

 

 

Best regards,

 

 

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