NPL in healthcare
Healthcare, Technology / December, 02 2022

Possible Applications of Natural language Processing (NLP) in Healthcare

The Natural Language Processing (NLP) market is expected to snowball in the next few years. Statista reports that it will be 14 times larger in 2025 than in 2017, which is $3 billion in 2017 to over $43 billion in 2025 of which $3.7 billion in healthcare alone. This shows the rapid adoption of Natural language processing (NLP) as it empowers computers to understand, interpret and manipulate human languages, enhancing collaboration. Incorporating computer science and computational linguistics, among other disciplines, it bridges human communication and computer understanding to give a human touch to computers. Let’s find out what NLP can do in healthcare.

NLP in healthcare supports medical professionals in diagnosing ailments better, developing treatment plans, and optimizing patients’ experience. In our previous blog, we talked about Natural Language Processing (NLP) in ai in detail. Check it out to get a comprehensive understanding of NLP. In this blog, we will precisely see how NLP can revolutionize healthcare. Stay tuned to know more about NLP in healthcare.

NLP is not a new term. It’s been around for a while now. Whenever you interact with a customer service chatbot or your personal virtual assistants like google assistant, Siri, Alexa etc. the language understanding of these is powered by NLP an advanced capability of Artificial Intelligence (AI). Isn’t that interesting? This is the power of NLP. When it is incorporated effectively it can do wonders in any sector.

NLP techniques

A quick glance of the important NLP techniques as I will refer to them in this blog. As we need digital documents, the first step is t o digitize the medical documents. Thanks to the technological advancements. Most of the medical documents today are digital easing the process.

Optical Character Recognition (OCR) – You can use OCR to digitize any document. It can be handwritten, image or document of any format. OCR can extract data from the document and present it in a digestible format. It is then fed into the NLP pipeline for further analysis.

Named Entity Recognition (NER) – This is a unique information extraction technique. NER segments named entities in real-world subjects like person, places, organization, or anything into predefined categories.

Sentiment Analysis – It uses a combination of NLP, computational linguistics, text analysis, facial recognition, and biometrics to a text or speech in order to ascertain the underlying sentiment.

Text Classification – Text categorization happens here. It analyzes text data and assigns tags or labels to semantic units or clauses based on predefined categories. With this technique, a healthcare provider can identify at-risk patients based on specific keywords in the medical records.

Topic modeling – It is a statistical modeling techniques. Topic modeling classifies the documents collected and groups them based on common keywords or phrases to recognize semantic structures. Latent Dirichlet allocation is a standard topic modeling technique that uses algorithms to identify semantic relationships of different words and phrases to group them.

Applications of NLP in Healthcare:

Clinical Documentation: 

NLP extracts critical data from Electronic Health Records (EHR) at the point of care using speech-to-text dictation and formulated data entry. Furthermore, It allows physicians to concentrate on providing patients with the necessary care and ensures that clinical documentation is accurate and up to date.

Clinical Trial Matching: 

Healthcare providers can use NLP to automatically review massive amounts of unstructured clinical and patient data to identify patients for clinical trials. This accommodates patients to receive experimental care that improves their condition and promotes medical innovation.

Clinical Decision making: 

NLP aids medical professionals make informed and intelligent decisions by providing access to health-related information exactly when required. Thus, It enables medical professionals to make more accurate decisions at the point of care.

Clinical Assertion:

Clinical assertion helps medical professionals to diagnose and treat patients better by enabling them to analyze clinical notes and identify what and when the patient is suffering. For example, a patient has been suffering from a headache for the past two weeks and feels anxious when she walks quickly. After examining the patient, the doctor notices that she has no alopecia symptoms and does not appear to be in pain.

The doctor could later use NER and text classification to analyze the patient’s clinical data from that appointment and identify headache, anxiety, alopecia, and pain as PROBLEM entities. The doctor could further categorize those issues by asserting whether they were present, conditional, or absent. In this case, the headache would be present, anxiety would be conditional, and alopecia and pain would be absent. Thus, NLP in healthcare allows physicians to optimize patient care by identifying the most pressing problems and providing immediate treatment.

Clinical deidentification:

Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) states that healthcare providers, health plans, and other covered entities should not disclose sensitive patient health information without the patient’s consent or knowledge. So, healthcare providers can use NLP to identify content containing Protected Health Information (PHI) and deidentify them by replacing PHI with semantic tags. Thus, healthcare organizations can avoid HIPAA non-compliance issues.

Clinical entity resolver:

NLP in healthcare helps medical providers to extract information from patient records about various conditions and diagnoses and assign them an ICD-10 Clinical Modification (ICD-10-CM) code. The ICD-10-CM is a valuable resource that helps physicians make better decisions. Cross-referencing symptoms and diagnoses against ICD-10-CM codes allow healthcare professionals to understand medical complications, prescribe better treatments, and determine care outcomes.

Clinical relation extraction:

The Clinical Extraction Model draws connections between different entities detected by NLP algorithms. NLP in healthcare helps in clinical documentation by identifying appropriate data based on the relationships between keywords and phrases. Healthcare providers use NLP to identify a particular drug’s strength, frequency, form, and duration.

Financial contract-based entity recognition:

NLP in healthcare empowers health insurance providers by automating the financial contract review process and flagging any potential errors or fraudulent data. Thus, decreasing the time to process the applications. Also, here entity recognition and text classification come into play.

The above applications are fewer comparing the actual intensity of applications of NLP in healthcare. Wherever you come across a bot or an automated workflow that can understand human language, it is NLP that is behind the scenes. Not limiting the applications of NLP to just numbers, it has infinite possibilities in any sector.

How can we help?

At SAXON, we are committed to providing tailored solutions for your use cases. Check out our solutions.

InsightBox

Enterprise chatbot in a week

App in a day

Digitalclerx

Contract intelligence

Onboardn

2 Week Cognitive Services POC

Have a use case? Get in touch with us for a 1:1 or a demo

Get in Touch

Newsletter

Stay up-to-date with our latest news, updates, and promotions by subscribing to our newsletter.

Copyright © 2008-2023 Saxon. All rights reserved | Privacy Policy

Address: 1320 Greenway Drive Suite # 660, Irving, TX 75038

Archana Aila

Archana Aila

Position Here

With 2 years of hands-on experience in Power Platform, I’ve excelled in developing and implementing solutions for businesses, harnessing the power of Power Apps, Power Automate, Power BI, and Power Virtual Agents to streamline processes and enhance productivity. My proficiency extends to crafting custom applications, automating workflows, generating data insights, and creating chatbots to aid operational efficiency and data-driven decision-making.

With an intermediate knowledge in Azure cognitive services, incorporating them into Power Platform use cases to innovate and solve complex challenges. My expertise in client engagement and requirements gathering, coupled with effective team coordination, ensures on-time, high-quality project deliveries. These efforts have yielded significant accomplishments, solidifying my role as a valuable asset in this field.

Akash Jakkidi

Akash Jakkidi

Position Here

I am committed to resolving complicated business difficulties into simplified, user-friendly solutions, and I have extensive experience in Power Apps development. I thrive in integrating cutting-edge technology to optimise process efficiency, leveraging intermediate knowledge in Azure, Cognitive Services, and Power BI. My interest is developing dynamic apps within the Power Apps ecosystem to help organisations achieve operational excellence and data-driven insights.

As a tech enthusiast, my passion for innovation leads me to constantly explore new ideas and push the frontiers of what is possible, assuring significant contributions to our technological world.

Palak Intodia

Palak Intodia

Position Here

I am a tech graduate with a strong passion for technology and innovation. With three years of experience in the IT industry, I’ve been on a continuous journey of professional growth and skill development. My expertise lies in Power Apps and Automate, where I’ve had the privilege of contributing to multiple successful projects.

I’m dedicated to delivering results that not only meet expectations but also drive the success of the projects I’m involved in. I’m committed to my ongoing professional development and the pursuit of excellence.

Roshan

Roshan Jaiswal

Position Here

With nearly 2 years of dedicated experience in Power Platform technology, my expertise lies in crafting customized business solutions using Power Apps and Power Automate. I excel in identifying intricate business requirements and translating them into innovative, user-friendly applications. My daily tasks involve meticulously deploying applications across diverse environments and harnessing the full potential of the Microsoft ecosystem within business applications.

I have proven my adaptability by consistently meeting the demands of creating responsive and scalable applications. Also seamlessly integrating complex workflows and data sources, ultimately enhancing operational efficiency and driving sustainable business growth.

Sugandha

Sugandha Chawla

Position Here

Sugandha is a seasoned technocrat and a full stack developer, manager, and lead. Having 8 years of industry experience, she has been able to build excellent working relationships with all her customers, successfully establishing repeat business, from almost all of them. She has worked with renowned giants like Infosys, Ernst & Young, Mindtree and Tech Mahindra.

She has very diverse and enriching work experience, having worked extensively on Microsoft Power Platform, .NET, Angular, Azure, Office 365, SQL. Her distinctiveness lies in the profound domain knowledge, managerial skills, and process mastery, that she additionally holds, as a result of possessing a customer facing role, working with different sectors, and managing and driving numerous critical executions, single-handedly, end to end.

Vibhuti Dandhich

Vibhuti Dadhich

Position Here

Vibhuti, a Power Platform technology evangelist, has passionately embraced the transformative potential of low-code development. With a background that includes experience at EY and Wipro, she’s been a trusted advisor for clients seeking innovative solutions. Her expertise in unraveling complex business challenges and crafting tailored solutions has propelled organizations to new heights.

Vibhuti’s commitment to staying at the forefront of technological advancements and her forward-thinking approach have solidified her as an industry thought leader. Her mission is to empower businesses to thrive in the digital age, revolutionizing operations through the Power Platform.

Ruturaj Kulkarni

Ruturaj Kulkarni

Position Here

With 8 years of dedicated expertise in the IT realm, I am a seasoned professional specializing in .NET technologies and Microsoft Azure Cloud. My journey encompasses a profound understanding of software development using the .NET framework and a robust command over Azure’s cloud ecosystem. Throughout my career, I’ve demonstrated a knack for crafting scalable and efficient solutions, leveraging the power of cloud computing.

My passion lies in staying at the forefront of technological advancements, ensuring that my skills align seamlessly with the dynamic landscape of IT. Ready to tackle challenges and drive innovation, I bring a wealth of experience to any project or team.

Sija Kuttan

Sija Kuttan

Vice President - Sales

Sija.V. K is a distinguished sales leader with a remarkable journey that spans over 15 years across diverse industries. Her expertise is a fusion of capital expenditure (CAPEX) machinery sales and the intricacies of cybersecurity.

Currently serving as the Vice President of Sales at Saxon AI, Sija adeptly navigates market dynamics, client acquisition, and channel management. Her distinguished track record of nurturing strong relationships, leading diverse teams, and driving growth underscores her as an adaptable and seasoned sales professional.

Gopi Kandukuri

Gopi Kandukuri

Chief Executive Officer

Gopi is the President and CEO of Saxon Inc since its inception and is responsible for the overall leadership, strategy, and management of the Company. As a true visionary, Gopi is quick to spot the next-generation technology trends and navigate the organization to build centers of excellence.

As a digital leader responsible for driving company growth and ROI, he believes in a business strategy built upon continuous innovation, investment in core capabilities, and a unique partner ecosystem. Gopi has served as founding member and 2018 President of ITServe, a non-profit organization of all mid-sized IT Services organization in US.

Vineesha Karri

Vineesha Karri

Associate Director - Marketing

Meet Vineesha Karri, the driving force behind our marketing endeavors. With over 12+ years of experience and a robust background in the B2B landscape across the US, EMEA, and APAC regions, she is pivotal in setting up high-performance marketing teams that drive business growth through a transformation based on new-age marketing practice.

Beyond her extensive experience driving business success across Digital, Data, AI, and Automation technologies, Vineesha’s diverse skill set shines as she collaborates with varied stakeholders across hierarchies, cultivating a harmonious and results-driven workspace.

Sridevi Edupuganti

Sridevi Edupuganti

Vice President – Cloud Solutions

Sridevi Edupuganti is an innovative leader known for strategically enhancing business opportunities through technology planning, orchestrating roadmaps, and guiding technology architecture choices. With a rich career spanning over two decades as a Senior Business and Technology Executive, she has driven teams to empower customers for digital transformation.

Her leadership fosters democratized digital experiences across enterprises. She has successfully expanded service portfolios globally, including major roles at Microsoft, NTT Data, Tech Mahindra. Proficient in diverse database technologies and Cloud platforms (AWS, Azure), she excels in operational excellence. Beyond her professional achievements, Sridevi also serves as a Health & Wellness coach, impacting IT professionals positively through engaging sessions.

Joel Jolly

Joel Jolly

Vice President – Technology

Joel has over 18 years of diverse global experience and multiple leadership assignments across Big 4 consulting, IT services and product engineering. He has distinguished himself by providing strategic vision and leadership for solving common industry problems on cutting-edge technologies.

As a leader surfacing and operationalizing next-generation ideas, he was responsible for exploring new technology directions, articulating a long-term technical vision, developing effective engineering processes, partnering with key stakeholders to build a strong internal and external brand and recruiting, mentoring, and growing great talent.

Haricharan Mylaraiah

Haricharan Mylaraiah

Senior Vice President - Strategy, Offerings & Sales Enablement

Hari is a Digital Marketer and Digital transformation specialist. He is adept at cultivating strong executive and customer relationships, utilizing data across all interactions (customers, employees, services, products) to lead cross-functionally as a strategic thought partner to install discipline, process, and methodology into a scalable company-wide customer-centric model.

He has 18+ years experience in Customer Acquisition, Product Strategy, Sales & Pre-Sales Management, Customer Success, Operations Management He is a Mechanical Engineering Graduate with MBA in International Business and Information Technology.