| The assertion annotators provide a mechanism for examining and documenting the real-world implications for annotations in text. |
| For example, one might assume that a mention of "diabetes" in text implies that patient has diabetes. |
| However, the assertion module will consider whether a named entity or event is negated, uncertain, |
| used in a generic way, or in the context of a person's history. |
| Additionally, the subject of the statement may be someone other than the patient |
| (e.g., the patient's father, for "father has hx of diabetes"). |
| Each of these attributes illustrate how the "assertion" value of a named entity might be marked. |
| The annotators set the value of their attribute using constants in |
| ```org.apache.ctakes.typesystem.type.constants.CONST``` |