This work aims at understanding the state of the art in the broad contextual research area of "medical concept representation". Our data support the general understanding that the focus of research has moved toward medical ontologies, which we interpret as a paradigm shift. Both the opinion of socially active groups of researchers and changes in bibliometric data since 1988 support this opinion. Socially active researchers mention the OBO foundry, SNOMED CT, and the UMLS as anchor activities.