Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association : JAMIA
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J Am Med Inform Assoc · Sep 2013
Longitudinal analysis of pain in patients with metastatic prostate cancer using natural language processing of medical record text.
To test the feasibility of using text mining to depict meaningfully the experience of pain in patients with metastatic prostate cancer, to identify novel pain phenotypes, and to propose methods for longitudinal visualization of pain status. ⋯ We have established the feasibility of tracking longitudinal patterns of pain by text mining of free text clinical records. These methods may be useful for monitoring pain management and identifying novel cancer phenotypes.
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J Am Med Inform Assoc · Sep 2013
Comparative StudyUsing rule-based natural language processing to improve disease normalization in biomedical text.
In order for computers to extract useful information from unstructured text, a concept normalization system is needed to link relevant concepts in a text to sources that contain further information about the concept. Popular concept normalization tools in the biomedical field are dictionary-based. In this study we investigate the usefulness of natural language processing (NLP) as an adjunct to dictionary-based concept normalization. ⋯ We have shown the added value of NLP for the recognition and normalization of diseases with MetaMap and Peregrine. The NLP module is general and can be applied in combination with any concept normalization system. Whether its use for concept types other than disease is equally advantageous remains to be investigated.