Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Interoperation of NLP-based Systems with Clinical Databases

  • Reference work entry
Encyclopedia of Database Systems

  • 72 Accesses

Synonyms

Semantic web

Definition

Natural language processing (NLP) is the automation of processes to interpret and understand meaning in human communications. In the life sciences, NLP assists in wide-scale storage and retrieval of specific “bundles” of clinical data embedded in patient charts which are commonly “free text”. Both expert-system and statistical based NLPs have been in use in biomedicine for over three decades and some have shown an expert-like level of accuracy [1,3,6]. With the advent of electronic medical records, the sheer amount of data necessitates automated means for proper analysis to aid in patient care and research purposes.

Key Points

NLP commonly relies on indexing/tokenization, which is a process of breaking down text strings into data bundles. These bundles then need to be understood, which can be accomplished by mapping to clinical ontology. These clinical ontologies provide a means of disambiguating and organizing the mapped concepts to permit more...

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 2,500.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Recommended Reading

  1. Chapman WW. Dowling JN. Wagner MM. Classification of emergency department chief complaints into 7 syndromes: a retrospective analysis of 527,228 patients. Ann. Emerg. Med., 46(5):445–455, 2005. Epub 2005 Jul 14.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Chen ES., Hripcsak G., and Friedman C. Disseminating natural language processed clinical narratives. AMIA Annu Symp Proc., 2006:126–30.

    Google Scholar 

  3. Collier N., Nazarenko A., Baud R., and Ruch P. 2006. Recent advances in natural language processing for biomedical applications. Int. J. Med. Inform, 75(6):413–417,

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Friedman C., Hripcsak G., Shagina L., and Liu H. 1999. Representing information in patient reports using natural language processing and the extensible markup language. J. Am. Med. Inform. Assoc., 6(1):76–87,

    Google Scholar 

  5. Friedman C., Shagina L., Lussier Y., and Hripcsak G. Auomated encoding of clinical documents based on natural language processing. J. Am. Med. Inform. Assoc., 11(5):392–402, 2004. Epub 2004 Jun 7.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Hripcsak G., Friedman C., Alderson PO., DuMouchel W., Johnson SB., and Clayton PD. Unlocking clinical data from narrative reports: a study of natural language processing. Ann. Intern. Med., 122(9):681–688, 1995.

    Google Scholar 

  7. Johnson SB., Campbell DA., Krauthammer M., Tulipano PK.,Medonca EA., Friedman C., and Hripcsak G. A native XML database design for clinical document research. AMIA Annu Symp Proc., 2003:883.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA

    Yves A. Lussier & Matthew G. Crowson

Authors
  1. Yves A. Lussier
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Matthew G. Crowson
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. College of Computing, Georgia Institute of Technology, 266 Ferst Drive, 30332-0765, Atlanta, GA, USA

    LING LIU (Professor) (Professor)

  2. Database Research Group David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science, University of Waterloo, 200 University Avenue West, N2L 3G1, Waterloo, ON, Canada

    M. TAMER ÖZSU (Professor and Director, University Research Chair) (Professor and Director, University Research Chair)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2009 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC

About this entry

Cite this entry

Lussier, Y.A., Crowson, M.G. (2009). Interoperation of NLP-based Systems with Clinical Databases. In: LIU, L., ÖZSU, M.T. (eds) Encyclopedia of Database Systems. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-39940-9_208

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation