Enhancing and Disaggregating Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander (NHPI) Data Using Natural Language Processing and an Expanded Race/Ethnicity Lexicon.

Journal: Studies in health technology and informatics
Published Date: Aug 7, 2025

Abstract

Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander (NHPI) populations are often aggregated into broad racial categories, obscuring potential disparities. This study leverages an expanded race/ethnicity lexicon and natural language processing (NLP) to identify documentation of NHPI subgroups to address gaps in electronic health records' (EHRs) recorded race. Results demonstrate the potential of NLP to classify NHPI documentation, disaggregate legacy categories, and improve health equity by incorporating more detailed subgroup data into standardized healthcare data sets.

Authors

  • Benjamin Viernes
    VA Salt Lake City Health Care System.
  • Qiwei Gan
    VA Salt Lake City Health Care System, 500, Foothill Boulevard, Salt Lake City 84148, USA; Division of Epidemiology, University of Utah, 295 Chipeta Way, Salt Lake City 84132, USA.
  • Elizabeth E Hanchrow
  • Mengke Hu
    Department of Biomedical Informatics, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah, United States.
  • Gregorio Coronado
    VA Informatics and Computing Infrastructure, VA Salt Lake City Health Care System, Salt Lake City, Utah; Division of Epidemiology, Department of Internal Medicine, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah.
  • Scott L DuVall
    VA Salt Lake City Health Care System.
  • Kalani Raphael
    Center for Pacific Islander Veteran Health. US Dept of VA. Honolulu, HI, USA.
  • Patrick R Alba
    VA Salt Lake City Health Care System.

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