Considerations for advancing nephrology research and practice through natural language processing.

Journal: Kidney international
Published Date:

Abstract

Much of medical data is buried in the free text of clinical notes and not captured by structured data, such as administrative codes. Natural language processing (NLP) can locate and use information that resides in unstructured free text. Chan et al. demonstrate that NLP is sensitive for identifying symptoms in hemodialysis patients. These findings highlight the benefit NLP may bring to nephrology and should prompt discussion of important considerations for NLP system design and implementation.

Authors

  • Sharidan K Parr
    Geriatric Research Education and Clinical Center (GRECC), Tennessee Valley Health System Veterans Administration Medical Center, Nashville, Tennessee, USA.
  • Glenn T Gobbel
    Department of Biomedical Informatics, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA.