# US 11,308,289 B2 · Normalization of medical terms with multi-lingual resources > Agents: this data is available as JSON from the patentgrep API and MCP server — see https://patentgrep.com/llms.txt - Number: US 11,308,289 B2 - Document ID: US11308289B2 - Status: Granted - Kind: B2 - Application number: 16/569,874 - Filed: 2019-09-13 - Published: 2021-03-18 - Granted: 2022-04-19 - Earliest claimed: 2019-09-13 - Assignees: International Business Machines Corporation - Applicants: International Business Machines Corporation - Inventors: Jian Min Jiang; Jian Wang; Songfang Huang; Jing Li; Ke Wang - Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US11308289B2 ## CPC - G06F 40/58: Use of machine translation, e.g. for multi-lingual retrieval, for server-side translation for client devices or for real-time translation - G06F 40/197: Version control (for software G06F8/71) - G06F 40/237: Lexical tools - G06F 40/44: Statistical methods, e.g. probability models - G06F 40/51: Translation evaluation - G06F: ELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING (computer systems based on specific computational models G06N) ## Abstract Method and apparatus are presented for receiving a medical or medical condition related input term or phrase in a source language, and translating the term or phrase from the source language into at least one target language to obtain a set of translated terms of the input term. For each translated term in the set of translations, the method and apparatus further translate the set of translations back into the source language to obtain an output list of standard versions of the input term, scoring each entry of the output list as to probability of being the most standard version of the input term, and providing the entry of the output list that has the highest score to a user. ## Claims ### Claim 1 A method comprising: receiving data including a medically-related input term in a source language; translating, using a first dictionary, the input term from the source language into a plurality of target languages to obtain a set of translated terms of the input term; for each respective translated term in the set of translated terms, translating, using a second dictionary, from one or more pre-defined domain specific dictionaries, that is specific to a medical domain, the respective translated term back into the source language to obtain an output list of normalized versions of the input term, wherein each normalized version in the output list are specific to the medical domain; assigning a respective score to each respective entry of the output list of normalized versions based on a respective probability of the respective entry being the most standard version of the input term; identifying an entry of the output list having a highest score; and providing the entry of the output list having the highest score as normalized input to a medical data processing application that processes the data. ### Claim 2 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, wherein the input term is a common version of a medical concept, condition, object, process, or drug. ### Claim 3 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, wherein each element of the set of translations is translated back into the source language using the one or more pre-defined domain specific dictionaries. ### Claim 4 (depends on 3) The method of claim 3, wherein the one or more pre-defined domain specific dictionaries are professional, scientific, or academic. ### Claim 5 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, wherein the input term is used in spoken Chinese. ### Claim 6 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of target languages includes two separate target languages. ### Claim 7 (depends on 6) The method of claim 6, wherein the two separate target languages are each European languages. ### Claim 8 (depends on 6) The method of claim 6, wherein, for each of the two separate target languages a body of published medical literature exists. ### Claim 9 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, further comprising outputting each entry of the output list, and its score, to the medical data processing application. ### Claim 10 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, wherein the score of each entry of the output list is determined by one or more of: relative frequency of the entry in the source language, relative frequency of a term in the plurality of target languages that was translated into the entry, or relative authority or prestige of the dictionary that was used to obtain the entry. ### Claim 11 A computer program product comprising a computer-readable storage medium having computer-readable program code embodied therewith, the computer-readable program code executable by one or more computer processors to perform an operation comprising: receiving data including a medically-related input term in a source language; translating, using a first dictionary, the input term from the source language into a plurality of target languages to obtain a set of translated terms of the input term; for each respective translated term in the set of translated terms, translating, using a second dictionary, from one or more pre-defined domain specific dictionaries, that is specific to a medical domain, the respective translated term back into the source language to obtain an output list of normalized versions of the input term, wherein each normalized version in the output list are specific to the medical domain; assigning a respective score to each respective entry of the output list of normalized versions based on a respective probability of the respective entry being the most standard version of the input term; identifying an entry of the output list having a highest score; and provide the entry of the output list having the highest score as normalized input to a medical data processing application that processes the data. ### Claim 12 (depends on 11) The computer program product of claim 11, wherein the computer-readable program code is further executable to: output each entry of the output list, and its score, to the medical data processing application. ### Claim 13 (depends on 11) The computer program product of claim 11, wherein each element of the set of translations is translated back into the source language using the one or more pre-defined domain specific dictionaries. ### Claim 14 (depends on 13) The computer program product of claim 13, wherein the one or more pre-defined domain specific dictionaries are professional, scientific, or academic. ### Claim 15 (depends on 11) The computer program product of claim 11, wherein the score of each entry of the output list is determined by one or more of: relative frequency of the entry in the source language, relative frequency of a term in the plurality of target languages that was translated into the entry, or relative authority or prestige of the dictionary that was used to obtain the entry. ### Claim 16 A system, comprising: one or more computer processors; and a memory containing a program which when executed by the one or more computer processors performs an operation, the operation comprising: receiving data including a medically-related input term in a source language; translating, using a first dictionary, the input term from the source language into a plurality of target languages to obtain a set of translated terms of the input term; for each respective translated term in the set of translated terms, translating, using a second dictionary, from one or more pre-defined domain specific dictionaries, that is specific to a medical domain, the respective translated term back into the source language to obtain an output list of normalized versions of the input term, wherein each normalized version in the output list are specific to the medical domain; assigning a respective score to each respective entry of the output list of normalized versions based on a respective probability of the respective entry being the most standard version of the input term; identifying an entry of the output list having a highest score; and providing the entry of the output list having the highest score as normalized input to a medical data processing application that processes the data. ### Claim 17 (depends on 16) The system of claim 16, the operation further comprising: outputting each entry of the output list, and its score, to the medical data processing application. ### Claim 18 (depends on 16) The system of claim 16, wherein each element of the set of translations is translated back into the source language using the one or more pre-defined domain specific dictionaries. ### Claim 19 (depends on 18) The system of claim 18, wherein the one or more pre-defined domain specific dictionaries are professional, scientific, or academic. ### Claim 20 (depends on 16) The system of claim 16, wherein the score of each entry of the output list is determined by one or more of: relative frequency of the entry in the source language, relative frequency of a term in the plurality of target languages that was translated into the entry, or relative authority or prestige of the dictionary that was used to obtain the entry.