Adaptive searching mechanisms for a cardiology information retrieval system

Medical knowledge is inherently complex and uncertain. Medical experts may provide different interpretations for symptoms since all of them also depend on a given context and most of them are established by statistical utilization. It is necessary a whole knowledge baggage in order to understand and take care of patients with cardiovascular diseases adequately. For this reason, the NOESIS system, an Integrated Project (IP) partially funded by the EU, has been conceived aiming at being a valuable instrument for cardiologic medical information retrieval from heterogeneous, distributed medical databases that mediates medical decision of critical health conditions. The adaptation features that are supported in the NOESIS platform generate a personalized searching process for the users depending on the information stored in their personal profiles. The objective of this paper is the description of a new adaptive searching mechanism developed using innovative technologies in order to obtain, use and manipulate medical information