Febrl -: an open source data cleaning, deduplication and record linkage system with a graphical user interface

Matching records that refer to the same entity across databases is becoming an increasingly important part of many data mining projects, as often data from multiple sources needs to be matched in order to enrich data or improve its quality. Significant advances in record linkage techniques have been made in recent years. However, many new techniques are either implemented in research proof-of-concept systems only, or they are hidden within expensive `black box' commercial software. This makes it difficult for both researchers and practitioners to experiment with new record linkage techniques, and to compare existing techniques with new ones. The Febrl (Freely Extensible Biomedical Record Linkage) system aims to fill this gap. It contains many recently developed techniques for data cleaning, deduplication and record linkage, and encapsulates them into a graphical user interface (GUI). Febrl thus allows even inexperienced users to learn and experiment with both traditional and new ...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2008
• Where: KDD
• Authors: Peter Christen
• Keywords: Biomedical Record Linkage, Data Mining, KDD 2008, Record Linkage Techniques, Record Linkage Users