Sorting Medical Concepts According to Priority

1 . A method, in a data processing system comprising at least one processor and at least one memory, the at least one memory comprising instructions executed by the at least one processor to cause the at least one processor to implement a cognitive medical system, the method comprising:

determining, by the data processing system, a cognitive operation to be performed by the cognitive medical system;

ingesting, by the cognitive medical system, a corpus of medical content, wherein the medical content comprises references to medical entities, and wherein ingesting the corpus comprises performing entity recognition on the medical content to identify the medical entities;

responsive to identifying a given medical entity having a plurality of annotations for an attribute, determining, by an entity differentiation component executing within the cognitive medical system, an ordered set of entity differentiation algorithms for differentiating the given medical entity based on the set of important clinical attributes and the cognitive operation to be performed by the cognitive medical system;

running, by the entity differentiation component, the ordered set of entity differentiation algorithms, in order, on the plurality of annotations for the attribute to generate a ranked list of attributes in prioritized order in terms of relevance; and

performing, by the cognitive medical system, the cognitive operation on the given entity based on the ranked list of attributes.

2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein determining the ordered set of entity differentiation algorithms comprises:

performing a lookup of the given medical entity in a set of entity differentiation knowledge sources; and

receiving from the set of entity differentiation knowledge sources the ordered set of entity differentiation algorithms associated with the given medical entity in the set of entity differentiation knowledge sources.

3 . The method of claim 2 , wherein determining the ordered set of entity differentiation algorithms further comprises determining an implementation class and parameters associated with each entity differentiation algorithm in the ordered set of entity differentiation algorithms in the entity differentiation knowledge sources.

4 . The method of claim 3 , wherein running the ordered set of entity differentiation algorithms comprises running each of the ordered set of entity differentiation algorithms by calling its implementation class and passing the associated parameters.

5 . The method of claim 2 , wherein determining the ordered set of entity differentiation algorithms further comprises identifying the set of entity differentiation tables associated with the cognitive operation to be performed by the cognitive medical system.

6 . The method in claim 1 , wherein determining the ordered set of entity differentiation is based on a goal of the cognitive healthcare system, wherein the goal comprises a treatment recommendation, adverse event analysis, or medical condition resolution.

7 . The method of claim 1 , wherein running the ordered set of entity differentiation algorithms comprises performing a merge sort based on results of running the ordered set of entity differentiation algorithms to generate the ranked list of attributes.

8 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the cognitive operation comprises generating a healthcare recommendation or performing clinical trials matching.

9 . A computer program product comprising a computer readable storage medium having a computer readable program stored therein, wherein the computer readable program comprises instructions, which when executed on a processor of a computing device causes the computing device to implement a cognitive medical system, wherein the computer readable program causes the computing device to:

determine, by the data processing system, a cognitive operation to be performed by the cognitive medical system;

ingest, by the cognitive medical system, a corpus of medical content, wherein the medical content comprises references to medical entities, and wherein ingesting the corpus comprises performing entity recognition on the medical content to identify the medical entities;

responsive to identifying a given medical entity having a plurality of annotations for an attribute, determine, by an entity differentiation component executing within the cognitive medical system, an ordered set of entity differentiation algorithms for differentiating the given medical entity based on the set of important clinical attributes and the cognitive operation to be performed by the cognitive medical system;

run, by the entity differentiation component, the ordered set of entity differentiation algorithms, in order, on the plurality of annotations for the attribute to generate a ranked list of attributes in prioritized order in terms of relevance; and

perform, by the cognitive medical system, the cognitive operation on the given entity based on the ranked list of attributes.

10 . The computer program product of claim 9 , wherein determining the ordered set of entity differentiation algorithms comprises:

performing a lookup of the given medical entity in a set of entity differentiation knowledge sources; and

receiving from the set of entity differentiation knowledge sources the ordered set of entity differentiation algorithms associated with the given medical entity in the set of entity differentiation knowledge sources.

11 . The computer program product of claim 10 , wherein determining the ordered set of entity differentiation algorithms further comprises determining an implementation class and parameters associated with each entity differentiation algorithm in the ordered set of entity differentiation algorithms in the entity differentiation knowledge sources.

12 . The computer program product of claim 11 , wherein running the ordered set of entity differentiation algorithms comprises running each of the ordered set of entity differentiation algorithms by calling its implementation class and passing the associated parameters.

13 . The computer program product of claim 10 , wherein determining the ordered set of entity differentiation algorithms further comprises identifying the set of entity differentiation knowledge sources associated with the cognitive operation to be performed by the cognitive medical system.

14 . The computer program product of claim 9 , wherein running the ordered set of entity differentiation algorithms comprises performing a merge sort based on results of running the ordered set of entity differentiation algorithms to generate the ranked list of attributes.

15 . The computer program product of claim 9 , wherein the cognitive operation comprises generating a healthcare recommendation or performing clinical trials matching.

16 . A computing device comprising:

a processor; and

a memory coupled to the processor, wherein the memory comprises instructions, which when executed on a processor of a computing device causes the computing device to implement a cognitive medical system, wherein the instructions cause the processor to:

determine, by the data processing system, a cognitive operation to be performed by the cognitive medical system;

ingest, by the cognitive medical system, a corpus of medical content, Wherein the medical content comprises references to medical entities, and wherein ingesting the corpus comprises performing entity recognition on the medical content to identify the medical entities;

responsive to identifying a given medical entity having a plurality of annotations for an attribute, determine, by an entity differentiation component executing within the cognitive medical system, an ordered set of entity differentiation algorithms for differentiating the given medical entity based on the set of important clinical attributes and the cognitive operation to be performed by the cognitive medical system;

run, by the entity differentiation component, the ordered set of entity differentiation algorithms, in order, on the plurality of annotations for the attribute to generate a ranked list of attributes in prioritized order in terms of relevance; and

perform, by the cognitive medical system, the cognitive operation on the given entity based on the ranked list of attributes.

17 . The computing device of claim 16 , wherein determining the ordered set of entity differentiation algorithms comprises:

performing a lookup of the given medical entity in a set of entity differentiation knowledge sources; and

receiving from the set of entity differentiation knowledge sources the ordered set of entity differentiation algorithms associated with the given medical entity in the set of entity differentiation knowledge sources.

18 . The computing device of claim 17 , wherein determining the ordered set of entity differentiation algorithms further comprises determining an implementation class and parameters associated with each entity differentiation algorithm in the ordered set of entity differentiation algorithms in the entity differentiation knowledge sources.

19 . The computing device of claim 18 , wherein running the ordered set of entity differentiation algorithms comprises running each of the ordered set of entity differentiation algorithms by calling its implementation class and passing the associated parameters.

20 . The computing device of claim 16 , wherein running the ordered set of entity differentiation algorithms comprises performing a merge sort based on results of running the ordered set of entity differentiation algorithms to generate the ranked list of attributes.