Data store organizing data using semantic classification

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9613125-B2
Application number	US-201213649866-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 11, 2012
Priority date	Oct 11, 2012
Publication date	Apr 4, 2017
Grant date	Apr 4, 2017

Abstract

Data stores that store content units and annotations regarding the content units derived through a semantic interpretation of the content units. When annotations are stored in a database, different parts of an annotation may be stored in different tables of the database. For example, one or more tables of the database may store all semantic classifications for the annotations, while one or more other tables may store content of all of the annotations. A user may be permitted to provide natural language queries for searching the database. A natural language query may be semantically interpreted to determine one or more annotations from the query. The semantic interpretation of the query may be performed using the same annotation model used to determine annotations stored in the database. Semantic classifications and format of the annotations for a query may be the same as one or more annotations stored in the database.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method comprising:
storing in a database a first annotation and a second annotation, the first annotation relating to a first content unit and comprising a first semantic label and first content, the first semantic label comprising a term that does not appear in the first content and indicating a semantic classification of the first content, the second annotation relating to a second content unit and comprising a second semantic label and second content, the second semantic label comprising a term that does not appear in the second content and indicating a semantic classification of the second content, the semantic classification of the second content being different from the semantic classification of the first content, wherein the semantic classification of the first content indicates a meaning of the first content in context of the first content unit,
wherein the first content does not explicitly appear in the first content unit, the term that indicates the semantic classification of the first content indicating a meaning of the first content in context of the first content unit from which the first content was determined,
wherein the second content is a text excerpt of text of the second content unit,
wherein the semantic classification of the second content indicates that the second content is an organizational and/or grammatical element of the text of the second content unit,
wherein the storing comprises
storing the first semantic label for the first annotation and the second semantic label for the second annotation in a first table of the database, and
storing the first content of the first annotation and the second content of the second annotation in at least one second table of the database different from the first table.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
storing in the database a plurality of annotations in addition to the first annotation and the second annotation, the plurality of annotations comprising a plurality of semantic labels that each indicates a semantic classification among a plurality of semantic classifications, at least some of the plurality of semantic classifications indicating a classification of meaning, each annotation of the plurality of annotations comprising a semantic label from among the plurality of semantic labels, the plurality of semantic classifications comprising the semantic classification of the first content and the semantic classification of the second content,
wherein the storing the plurality of annotations in the database comprises storing each of the plurality of semantic labels in the first table.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the storing the first semantic label and the second semantic label in the first table of the database comprises storing the first semantic label and the second semantic label in one data structure in at least one computer-readable storage medium, the data structure specifying an organization of the first table.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein:
the at least one second table comprises a plurality of content tables, each content table of the plurality of content tables comprising at least one content field for storing content of an annotation, the plurality of content tables comprising a first content table and a second content table, the first content table comprising a first content field for storing annotation content of a first data type and the second content table comprising a second content field for storing annotation content of a second data type, the first data type being different from the second data type; and
the storing the first content in the at least one second table comprises:
determining a data type of the first content;
when it is determined that the first content is of the first data type, storing the first content in the first content table in response to determining that the first content is of the first data type; and
when it is determined that the first content is of the second data type, storing the first content in the second content table in response to determining that the first content is of the second data type.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein:
the method further comprises maintaining, for each one of the plurality of content tables, at least one index corresponding to the at least one content field of the content table, wherein the at least one index for the first content table comprises a first index corresponding to the first content field and the at least one index for the second content table comprises a second index corresponding to the second content field; and
the storing the first content in the at least one second table further comprises:
when it is determined that the first content is of the first data type, updating the first index on the first content field following storage of the first content in the first content table in response to determining that the first content is of the first data type; and
when it is determined that the first content is of the second data type, updating the second index on the second content field following storage of the first content in the second content table in response to determining that the first content is of the second data type.

6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
storing, in the first table, a first content unit identifier identifying the first content unit to which the first annotation relates, the storing comprising identifying, in the first table, that the first content unit identifier is associated with the first annotation;
storing, in the first table, a second content unit identifier identifying the second content unit to which the second annotation relates, the storing comprising identifying, in the first table, that the second content unit identifier is associated with the second annotation; and
storing the first content unit and the second content unit in the database.

7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
storing in the database a third annotation relating to the first content unit, the third annotation comprising a third semantic label and third content, the third semantic label indicating a semantic classification of the third content, wherein the storing comprises
storing the third semantic label for the third annotation in the first table of the database, and
storing the third content of the third annotation in the at least one second table of the database; and

associating the first annotation with the third annotation in the database, wherein the associating comprises storing, in a third table of the database, a first identifier for the first annotation and a third identifier for the third annotation.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein:
the first content comprises content explicitly recited in the first content unit;
the third content comprises content not explicitly recited in the first content unit; and
the third content is related to the first content and provides information regarding the first content.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein:
the first content unit records a clinical encounter; and
the storing the first annotation related to the first content unit comprises storing at least one fact that has a medical significance.

10. The method of claim 9 , wherein the storing the at least one fact comprises storing at least one medical fact that is not explicitly recited in the first content unit.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first content unit and the second content unit are the same content unit.

12. The method of claim 2 , wherein:
at least some of the plurality of semantic classifications indicate a classification of a role of content relative to a content unit from which the content

Assignees

• Casella Dos Santos Mariana
• Montyne Frank
• Nuance Communications Inc

Inventors

• Casella Dos Santos Mariana
• Montyne Frank

Classifications

• G06F16/284 Primary

  Relational databases · CPC title

• G06F16/35

  Clustering; Classification · CPC title

• G06F17/30595 Primary

  Physics · mapped topic

• G06F17/30705

  Physics · mapped topic