Mayo Clinic teams with Collexis to uncover database secrets

US software developer, Collexis, is to pilot its semantic profiling system, 'Expert Profiles System', with US medical library group, Mayo Clinic Libraries. Both parties hope the pilot will mine hidden knowledge from existing databases and documents.

According to Collexis, its software creates profiles of texts such as peer-reviewed articles, web pages or emails, that represent the key concepts within those texts. The developer says this enables data mining at a level that is deeper and more robust than traditional keyword searching.

During the first phase of the Expert Profiles System proof of concept pilot, 10 years of publications authored by 250 of the more than 3000 Mayo Clinic researchers and clinicians will be 'fingerprinted'.

Software will allow users to search more than 16 million citations and abstracts in the fields of life sciences and clinical medicine.