The role of semantic and discourse information in learning the structure of surgical procedures

Ramon Maldonado, Travis Goodwin, Sanda M. Harabagiu, Michael A. Skinner

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

Abstract

Electronic Operative Notes are generated after surgical procedures for documentation and billing. These operative notes, like many other Electronic Medical Records (EMRs) have the potential of an important secondary use: they can enable surgical clinical research aimed at improving evidence-based medical practice. Recognizing surgical techniques by capturing the structure of a surgical procedure requires the semantic processing and discourse understanding of operative notes. Identifying only predicates pertaining to surgical actions does not explain the various possible surgical scripts. Similarly, recognizing all actions and observations pertaining to a surgical step cannot be performed without taking into account discourse structure. In this paper we show how combining both forms of clinical language processing leads to learning the structure of surgical procedures. Experimental results on two large sets of operative notes show promising results.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publicationProceedings - 2015 IEEE International Conference on Healthcare Informatics, ICHI 2015
EditorsWai-Tat Fu, Prabhakaran Balakrishnan, Sanda Harabagiu, Fei Wang, Jaideep Srivatsava
PublisherInstitute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.
Pages223-232
Number of pages10
ISBN (Electronic)9781467395489
DOIs
StatePublished - Dec 8 2015
Event3rd IEEE International Conference on Healthcare Informatics, ICHI 2015 - Dallas, United States
Duration: Oct 21 2015Oct 23 2015

Publication series

NameProceedings - 2015 IEEE International Conference on Healthcare Informatics, ICHI 2015

Other

Other3rd IEEE International Conference on Healthcare Informatics, ICHI 2015
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CityDallas
Period10/21/1510/23/15

Keywords

  • Discourse processing
  • Electronic medical records
  • Operative notes
  • Semantic processing
  • Surgical actions
  • Surgical script

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Health Informatics

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