Practical fulltext search in medical records
Vít Volšička, Milan Blaha · Mefanet Journal · 2015
Performing a search through previously existing documents, including medical reports, is an integral part of acquiring new information and educational processes. Unfortunately, finding relevant information is not always easy, since many documents are saved in free text formats, thereby making it difficult to search through them. A full-text search is a viable solution for searching through documents. The full-text search makes it possible to efficiently search through large numbers of documents and to find those that contain specific search phrases in a short time. All leading database systems currently offer full-text search, but some do not support the complex morphology of the Czech language. Apache Solr provides full support options and some full-text libraries. This programme provides the good support of the Czech language in the basic installation, and a wide range of settings and options for its deployment over any platform. The library had been satisfactorily tested using real data from the hospitals. Solr provided useful, fast, and accurate searches. However, there is still a need to make adjustments in order to receive effective search results, particularly by correcting typographical errors made not only in the text, but also when entering words in the search box and creating a list of frequently used abbreviations and synonyms for more accurate results.