Understanding terminological systems I: Terminology and typology

Terminological systems are an important research issue within the field of medical informatics. For precise understanding of existing terminological s ystems a referential framework is needed that provides a uniform terminolog y and typology of terminological systems themselves. in this article a unif orm terminology is described by putting relevant fundamental notions and de finitions used by standard organizations such as CEN and ISO into perspecti ve, and interrelating them to arrive at a useful typology of terminological systems. This typology is illustrated by applying it to five well-known ex isting terminological systems.