 A Lexicon for Uniform Indexing and Retrieval of Radiology Information Resources
Editorial by Curtis P. Langlotz, MD, PhD:
RadLex: A New Method for Indexing Online Educational Materials
RadioGraphics 2006;26:1595-1597
Introduction
As images, imaging reports, and medical records move online, radiologists need a unified language to organize and retrieve them. Radiologists currently use a variety of terminologies and standards, but no single lexicon serves all of their needs. RadLex is a single unified source of radiology terms that is designed to fill this need.
Terminology is increasingly vital to the practice of medicine. Many of the benefits of clinical information technology cannot be realized unless information is stored using standard terms in a structured format. Unfortunately, almost all radiology reports are stored as text narratives rather than in a structured format, thereby hampering radiologists' ability to participate in the ongoing changes in our health care system, which are increasingly driven by information technology. (See the handout entitled The Lexicon-Enabled Radiology Practice to learn how RadLex can improve your practice.)
The RadLex project is sponsored by the RSNA, which has enlisted the collaboration of other radiology organizations, including the American College of Radiology (ACR), to develop a comprehensive radiology lexicon. It has been designed to satisfy the needs of software developers, system vendors, and radiology users by adopting the best features of existing terminology systems, while producing new terms to fill critical gaps. RadLex also provides a comprehensive and technology-friendly replacement for the ACR Index for Radiological Diagnoses. Rather than "re-inventing the wheel", RadLex unifies and supplements other lexicons and standards, such as SNOMED-CT, and DICOM.
RadLex History and Status Report
In 2005, six RadLex organ system committees were formed in collaboration with more than 30 radiology professional and standards organizations, including ACR, DICOM, and IHE. During 2006, each of these committees met twice to discuss and approve anatomic and pathologic terms. As a result of these deliberations, over 7500 terms were released publicly in November 2006.
In 2007, six additional committees were recruited, each focusing on a specific imaging modality. These modality committees defined terms to describe the devices, imaging exams, and procedure steps performed in radiology. This modality effort is often called the RadLex Playbook. Playbook terms are now available on the RadLex web site, together with an new version of anatomy and pathology terms.
Significant adoption of RadLex is already occurring, including by radiology decision support and reporting vendors, and a German translation that is nearing completion. There have been over a dozen RSNA scientific abstracts and exhibits related to RadLex in the last two years, with a growing number scheduled for presentation this year. RadLex is supported both by the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB) and by the cancer Biomedical Informatics Grid (caBIG) project, a large NIH-sponsored effort to develop unified computing infrastructure for clinical trials.
Future Plans
The RadLex term development process is essentially complete. However, several additional tasks will be performed in the ensuing year:
- Response to user feedback. Following the second release of RadLex, feedback can be provided by sending a message to radlexfeedback@rsna.org.
- Term linkage. RadLex terms will be linked back to equivalent SNOMED terms if they exist. We also have committed to construct a method that enables teaching files employing the ACR Index to be converted to RadLex.
- Curation and maintenance. The terminology will be maintained in perpetuity, both to keep the lexicon up to date, and to respond to user feedback.
RadLex STEERING COMMITTEE MEMBERS
Daniel L. Rubin, MD, Chairman
Stanford, CA
Frederick M. Behlen, PhD
Homewood, IL
William W. Boonn, MD
Philadelphia, PA
David A. Clunie, MBBS
Bangor, PA
John Eng, MD
Cockeysville, MD
Bradley J. Erickson, MD, PhD
Rochester, MN
Charles E. Kahn, Jr, MD
Milwaukee, WI
Curtis P. Langlotz, MD, PhD
Moorestown, NJ
Eliot L. Siegel, MD
Severna Park, MD
Chris L. Sistrom, MD
Gainesville, FL
Ronald L. Arenson, MD, Board Liaison
San Francisco, CA
Steven T. Drew, Staff Contact
Oak Brook, IL
SUBSPECIALTY LEXICON DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEES
| RadLex Committee |
Committee Chair |
Committee Members
|
| Steering |
Daniel L. Rubin, MD
Donald P. Harrington, MD (vice chair) |
See above list
|
| Abdominal |
Isaac R. Francis, MD |
Teresita L. Angtuaco, MD
Bernard A. Burnbaum, MD
Jeffrey J. Brown, MD
Karen M. Horton, MD
Elizabeth G. McFarland, MD
Frank H. Miller, MD
Donald G. Mitchell, MD
Nicholas Papanicolaou, MD
Carl M. Sandler, MD
Mitchell Tublin, MD
Judy Yee, MD |
| Breast |
Elizabeth S. Burnside, MD |
Teresita L. Angtuaco, MD
Kate Appleton, MD
Beth Burnside, MD
Wendy DeMartini, MD
Janie Lee, MD
Jessica Leung, MD
Jafi Lipson, MD
Martha Maniero, MD
Matt Morgan, MD
Daniel Rubin, MD, MS
Charlene Sennett, MD |
| Cardiovascular |
E. Kent Yucel, MD, PhD |
Andre J. G. Duerinckx, MD, PhD
Antoinette S. Gomes, MD
C. Carl Jaffe, MD
John A. Kaufman, MD
Warren J. Manning, MD
Barry Stein, MD
Lawrence Neil Tanenbaum, MD
Arthur Conrad Waltman, MD
William Weigold, MD
Pamela K. Woodard, MD
|
| Musculoskeletal |
Donald P. Harrington, MD
David A. Rubin, MD |
Mark W. Anderson, MD
Thomas H. Berquist, MD
John A. Carrino, MD, MPH
Giuseppe Guglielmi, MD
H. Hugh Hawkins, Jr., MD
Patrick T. Liu, MD
Theodore T. Miller, MD
Wilfred C. G. Peh, MD
Lynne S. Steinbach, MD
Mihra S. Taljanovic, MD
Jeffrey D. Towers, MD
Hilary R. Umans, MD
Lawrence M. White, MD |
| Neuro |
Adam E. Flanders, MD |
John A. Carrino, MD, MPH
Bradley Erickson, MD, PhD
Jerry Jarvik, MD, MPH
Kelly Koeller, MD
Elias R. Melhem, MD
Kevin R. Moore, MD
Marvin D. Nelson, MD, MBA
Vijay Rao, MD
Howard A. Rowley, MD
Erin M. Simon, MD
Richard H. Wiggins, III, MD
Mary E. Jensen, MD
Jay Pillai, MD
Elna-Marie Larsson, MD, PhD |
| Pediatric |
James S. Meyer, MD |
Kimberly E. Applegate, MD, MS
J. Damien Grattan-Smith, MBBS
R. Paul Guillerman, MD
Diego Jaramillo, MD, MPH
Ann Johnson, MD
Neil D. Johnson, MD
Rajesh Krishnamurthy, MD
Frederick R. Long, MD
Marguerite T. Parisi, MD
Gilbert Vezina, MD
Edward Weinberger, MD |
| Thoracic |
Theresa C. McLoud, MD |
Ronald Arenson, MD
John Austin, MD
Phillip Boiselle, MD
Paul Friedman, MD
Alex Gottschalk, MD
David Hansell, MD
Donald P. Harrington, MD
Curtis P. Langlotz, MD, PhD
Carla Morrisey
Martine Remy-Jardin, MD, PhD
Irena Tocino, MD
Richard Webb, MD
Charles S. White, MD |
| Computed Tomography |
Isaac R. Francis, MD |
Jonathon Burdette, MD
Michael Callahan, MD
Georges El-Khoury, MD
Nancy Fefferman-Katz, MD
Mannudeep Kalra, MD
Jane Ko, MD
Thomas M. Link, MD
Cynthia H. McCollough, PhD
Chris Sistrom, MD
Lacey Washington, MD
William Weadock, MD
Max Wintermark, MD
Lifeng Yu, PhD
|
| Interventional Radiology |
Sanjoy Kundu, MD |
Andy Adam, MB, BS
Curtis W. Bakal, MD, MPH
Julia Gates, MD
Debra Ann Gervais, MD
S. Nahum Goldberg, MD
George G. Hartnell, MD
Maxim Itkin, MD
John R. Kachura, MD
Venkataramu Krishnamurthy, MD
Donald L. Miller, MD
Wayne Monsky, MD, PhD
Tarun Sabharwal, MD
Kenneth W. Sniderman, MD
Michael J. Wallace, MD |
| Magnetic Resonance Imaging |
Donald G. Mitchell, MD |
Matthew A. Bernstein, PhD
John A. Carrino, MD, MPH
Adam E. Flanders, MD
Gary D. Fullerton, PhD
R. Edward Hendrick, PhD
Emanuel Kanal, MD
Timothy John Mosher, MD
Vamsidhar Rao Narra, MD
Lawrence H. Schwartz, MD
Mark E. Schweitzer, MD
Evan S. Siegelman, MD
Claude B. Sirlin, MD
Jeffrey C. Weinreb, MD |
| Nuclear and Molecular Imaging |
Bennett S. Greenspan, MD |
Gary L. Dillehay, MD
Edward A. Eikman, MD
Lorraine M. Fig, MD
Leonie L. Gordon, MD
Charles Kahn, MD
Val J. Lowe, MD
David A. Mankoff, MD
Barry L. Shulkin, MD
Jack A. Ziffer, MD, PhD |
| Radiography and Fluoroscopy |
David S. Channin, MD |
Donald P. Harrington, MD
Paul G. Nagy, PhD
Benjamin Pierce
Charles Willis, PhD |
| Ultrasound |
Stephen C. Horii, MD |
Richard Bellah, MD
Edward Bluth, MD
Peter Callen, MD
Emily Conant, MD
Brian S. Garra, MD
Charles Kahn, MD
Beth Kline-Fath, MD
Sherelle Laifer-Narin, MD
Deborah Levine-Jesurum, MD
Chris Sistrom, MD
Susan Weinstein, MD |
| Playbook |
David S. Channin, MD
Curtis P. Langlotz, MD, PhD |
Alice N. Averbukh
Keith Dreyer, DO, PhD
Donald P. Harrington, MD
Charles E. Kahn, Jr., MD
Daniel L. Rubin, MD
Chris L. Sistrom, MD |
Editors and Translators
Andre Coutinho Castilla, MD, PhD
São Paulo, Brazil
Dirk Marwede, MD, MSc
Leipzig, Germany
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