This guide will take approximately 2 minutes to complete.
In this guide you will learn how to search for concepts that you cannot find using a keyword you may have typed in the concept box. This strategy is applicable across the entire platform.
Step 0: Login
Refer to https://med.causaly.com
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Step 1: Conduct your search using broader concepts to explore the UMLS ontology hierarchies
To find a concept that is not displayed in the relevant concepts when you have typed a keyword of interest, use a broader concept instead, to explore the narrower concepts .
For example, if you are searching for the delayed adverse events of a drug of interest, no relevant concept will appear when you type “delayed”. In this case, type “Adverse Event” in the concept box and hit search.
Before exploring the results, click on the (+show all) button to investigate the narrower concepts. In the pop-up window, you can see that there is a narrower concept listed as “late effect of medical intervention” from the UMLS ontologies (Figure 1). Therefore, the concept of interest is “late effect of medical intervention” and no keyword needs to be added in the text box.
Figure 1: Define how to phrase “Delayed adverse events” by looking for the broader concept “Adverse reactions” that comes as the parent concept.
Step 2: If your concept doesn’t exist in the UMLS ontologies use the free text option
If you cannot locate any concept name relevant to your search, you can use the Intelligent or Advanced Search modules and select the free text option in any of the concept boxes.
To examine the findings related to pediatric psoriasis, for example, the search strategy described below should be followed.
By using the approach described in Step 1 (i.e. look for the narrower concepts under Psoriasis), you can see that there is no concept relevant to childhood or pediatric psoriasis. In this case, write “Pediatric psoriasis” in the concept box and select the free text option (Figure 2).
Figure 2: The free text option in the Advanced Search Module
Note: The system will only look for the text you have added in this box, and not for the synonyms as listed in the UMLS ontologies. Therefore, results will be specific but their retrieval may be limited.
Similarly, you can perform a keyword search to refine your results. For more information on how to perform a keyword search, visit this guide.
To explore how to better use the keyword search, click here.