Exploring deep learning methods for recognizing rare diseases and their clinical manifestations from texts.

Journal: BMC bioinformatics
Published Date:

Abstract

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Although rare diseases are characterized by low prevalence, approximately 400 million people are affected by a rare disease. The early and accurate diagnosis of these conditions is a major challenge for general practitioners, who do not have enough knowledge to identify them. In addition to this, rare diseases usually show a wide variety of manifestations, which might make the diagnosis even more difficult. A delayed diagnosis can negatively affect the patient's life. Therefore, there is an urgent need to increase the scientific and medical knowledge about rare diseases. Natural Language Processing (NLP) and Deep Learning can help to extract relevant information about rare diseases to facilitate their diagnosis and treatments.

Authors

  • Isabel Segura-Bedmar
  • David Camino-Perdones
    Human Language and Accesibility Technologies, Computer Science Department, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, Avenidad de la Universidad, 30, Leganés, 28911, Madrid, Spain.
  • Sara Guerrero-Aspizua
    Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine group, Department of Bioengineering, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, Avenidad de la Universidad, 30, Leganés, 28911, Madrid, Spain.