Natural language processing–overview and history

Published in Pediatric Biomedical Informatics: Computer Applications in Pediatric …, 2016, 2016

Recommended citation: Brian Connolly, Timothy Miller, Yizhao Ni, Kevin B Cohen, Guergana Savova, Judith W Dexheimer, and John Pestian. 2016. Natural language processing–overview and history. In Pediatric Biomedical Informatics: Computer Applications in Pediatric …, 2016.

Abstract:

In this chapter, we introduce the topic of Natural Language Processing (NLP) in the clinical domain. NLP has shown increasing promise in tasks ranging from the assembly of patient cohorts to the identification of mental disorders. The chapter begins with a discussion of the necessity of NLP for analyzing EHRs. Subsequent sections then place clinical NLP research in a wider historical context by reviewing various approaches to NLP over time. The focus then turns to available NLP-related data resources and the methods of generating such resources. The actual development of NLP systems and their evaluation are then examined. The chapter concludes by describing current and future challenges in clinical NLP.