Information retrieval in context using various health terminologies

Information retrieval is a branch of computer science concerned with the acquisition, storage, search and selection of information. From the user point of view, the access to information can be carried out in a deliberate way through an information retrieval system, or in a passive way through an information filtration system. CISMeF (Catalogue and Index of the French-speaking Medical Sites) is a health portal aiming to catalogue and index the most important French-speaking institutional health information sources in order to make them available to health professionals, medical students and the general public. The Internet resources were manually indexed and have remained mono-terminological from 1995 to 2007 originally based exclusively on the MeSH thesaurus (Medical Subject Headings). Categorization allows a contextual information retrieval parameterized according to the user´s needs. In 2007, the CISMeF team directed its objectives towards a multi-terminological universe by the integration of the medical data heterogeneous sources into its back-office. To date, the practical application is the creation of a bilingual (French/English) drug information portal in order to facilitate the user information retrieval about drugs.