The KnowledgeMap project: development of a concept-based medical school curriculum database.

Abstract

We developed the KnowledgeMap (KM) system as an online, concept-based database of medical school curriculum documents. It uses the KM concept indexer to map full-text documents and match search queries to concepts in the Unified Medical Language System (UMLS). In this paper, we describe the design of KM and report the first seven months of its implementation into a medical school. Despite being emphasized in only two first year courses and one fourth year course, students from all four classes used KM to search and browse documents. All faculty members involved with courses piloting KM used the system to upload and manage lecture documents. Currently, we are working with eight course directors to transition their courses to KM for next year.