Medical Specialists Retrieval System Using Unified Medical Language System

A large number of doctors and wide range of medical specialties can cause confusion in choosing the right medical specialist. This research aims to build a medical specialists retrieval system that corresponds with the user's disease. To make the system whole, it requires the ability to differentiate a query from common words and relate it to a disease, then associate the disease to related medical specialties. The Unified Medical Language System (UMLS) is used in query handling and finding relations between a disease and medical specialties. Additionally, the search results are sorted by the nearest medical practices based on user's location. This system has been evaluated by two internists which revealed an average score of 4.625 out of 5, which means relevant, of all points evaluated. Thus, provided a positive feedback to overall system performance.