The National Library of Medicine

National Library of MedicineThe National Library of Medicine The National Library of Medicine (NLM), a unit of the Nation Institutes of Health (NIH), is the largest medical library in the world and provides information services to healthcare practitioners, researchers and the public.

One of its flagship services is the Unified Medical Language System (UMLS) which is utilized by biomedical and health data information systems. UMLS consists of a set of Knowledge sources (databases) and software tools (programs) that are utilized by software applications to compensate for differences in the way those biomedical concepts are expressed in computerized biomedical resources. UMLS facilitates “the development of computer systems that behave as if they understand the meaning of the language of biomedicine and health”.

Business Challenge

Healthcare Practitioners, Researchers and the Public were unable to easily access updated tools and data due to outdated processes.

Solution

NLM transitioned the O&M of UMLS from the incumbent contractor to SCI in preparation for a major in-house reengineering effort. The O&M activities were also relocated from NLM’s Lister Hill Center (LHC) to the Office of Computer and Communications Systems (OCCS).

The size, scope and complexity of this endeavor can be gauged from the following statistics:

  • The UMLS software consists of a system of systems, involving over 500,000 lines of code, developed in informal research settings, using multiple languages, over a period of about 20 years. • The UMLS Meta-Thesaurus contains over 1 million biomedical concepts and over 5 million concept names from over 100 controlled vocabularies and classifications.
  • The UMLS is an ongoing operational system with over 850 institutional users.
  • The UMLS is released 3 times each year, and the size of each distribution is about 27 GB
  • The transition process must be executed without disruption to the release schedule, or diminishing the data quality

NLM engaged SCI to provide a range of IT technical services under multiple task orders for the following activities:

  • Transition of the UMLS from the incumbent contractor. This involved becoming familiar with software architecture, software configuration, software code documentation, release management and QA procedures.
  • Production Operations of the UMLS and its internal website, including maintenance, quality assurance and management for the periodic release and distribution of the UMLS data and tools.
  • Reengineering of the UMLS to improve NLM’s ability to enhance the software, improve stability and maintainability, improve process maturity and reduce release cycle time.

Business Benefit

A more efficient periodic release and distribution of the UMLS data and tools was realized by Healthcare Practitioners, Researchers and the Public, through improved stability and maintainability of the system and improved process maturity.

Want to learn more?

Please contact us at info@scigrp.com