Methods and apparatus for linking extracted clinical facts to text

• US 8,788,289 B2
• Filed: 02/18/2011
• Issued: 07/22/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 02/18/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Nuance Communications, Inc. (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Flanagan, James R., Zaccagnini, Davide, Montyne, Frank, Decraene, David, Hellman, David, Shelton, Matthew R., Casella dos Santos, Mariana, Doyle, Karen Anne, Raedemaeker, Johan, Van der Vloet, Joeri, Habboush, Isam, Elcocks, Anthony J., Hartunian, Anush
• Primary Examiner(s): Sereboff, Neal
• Assistant Examiner(s): KANAAN, MAROUN P
• Application Number:
  US13/030,981
• Publication Number:
  US 20120215559A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,250 Days
• Field of Search: 705/2, 705/3
• US Class Current: 705/3
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/1815 Semantic context, e.g. disambiguation of the recognition hypotheses based on word meaning
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/26 Speech to text systems G10L15/08 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 10/20 for electronic clinical trials or questionnaires
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 10/60 for patient-specific data, e.g. for electronic patient records
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 15/00 ICT specially adapted for medical reports, e.g. generation or transmission thereof

Abstract

A plurality of clinical facts may be extracted from a free-form narration of a patient encounter provided by a clinician. The plurality of clinical facts may include a first fact and a second fact. The first fact may be extracted from a first portion of the free-form narration, and the second fact may be extracted from a second portion of the free-form narration. A first indicator that indicates a first linkage between the first fact and the first portion of the free-form narration may be provided to a user. A second indicator, different from the first indicator, that indicates a second linkage between the second fact and the second portion of the free-form narration may also be provided to the user.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

extracting, using at least one processor, a plurality of clinical facts from a free-form narration of a patient encounter provided by a clinician, wherein the plurality of clinical facts comprises a first fact and a second fact, wherein the first fact is extracted from a first portion of the free-form narration, and wherein the second fact is extracted from a second portion of the free-form narration, the extracting comprising

analyzing the free-form narration to identify one or more sets of features of at least the first and second portions of the free-form narration,

correlating the one or more sets of features to a plurality of abstract semantic concepts, and

generating computer-readable data that expresses the plurality of abstract semantic concepts as the plurality of clinical facts extracted from the free-form narration; and

providing to a user a first indicator that indicates a first linkage between the first fact and the first portion of the free-form narration, wherein providing the first indicator comprises;

in response to the user selecting the first fact via a user interface, providing to the user an indicator that distinguishes the first portion of the free-form narration from which the first fact was extracted from other portions of the free-form narration from which the first fact was not extracted; and

providing to the user a second indicator, different from the first indicator, that indicates a second linkage between the second fact and the second portion of the free-form narration.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the first indicator comprises a visual indicator.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the first indicator indicates the first linkage using a different textual and/or graphic style than the second indicator uses to indicate the second linkage.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the first indicator indicates the first linkage using a first color, and the second indicator indicates the second linkage using a second color, wherein the first color is different from the second color.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein providing the first indicator comprises:

in response to a selection by the user of one of the first fact and a textual representation of the first portion of the free-form narration, visually identifying the other of the first fact and the textual representation of the first portion of the free-form narration.

6. The method of claim 2, wherein providing the first indicator comprises:

in response to a selection by the user of one of the first fact and a textual representation of the first portion of the free-form narration, displaying a graphical connector between the first fact and the textual representation of the first portion of the free-form narration.

7. The method of claim 2, wherein providing the first indicator comprises:

in response to a selection by the user of the first fact, scrolling a display of a textual representation of the free-form narration to a textual representation of the first portion of the free-form narration.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the first indicator comprises an audio indicator.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein providing the first indicator comprises:

in response to a selection by the user of the first fact, playing an audio version of the first portion of the free-form narration.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the audio version of the first portion of the free-form narration comprises a portion of an audio recording of the clinician dictating the free-form narration.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein the audio version of the first portion of the free-form narration is generated from a textual representation of the free-form narration using automatic speech synthesis.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising automatically editing one of the first fact and a data representation of the first portion of the free-form narration in response to the user editing the other of the first fact and the data representation of the first portion of the free-form narration.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

in response to the user selecting a third portion of the free-form narration, extracting a third fact from the third portion of the free-form narration.

14. The method of claim 1, further comprising formatting a textual representation of the free-form narration to produce a formatted text, wherein the plurality of clinical facts are extracted from the formatted text.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the formatting is performed in a way that facilitates the extracting of the plurality of clinical facts.

16. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

including the first fact in a patient record; and

indicating a linkage between the first fact in the patient record and the first portion of the free-form narration.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the indicating comprises:

simultaneously displaying at least a portion of the patient record and a textual representation of at least the first portion of the free-form narration; and

visually indicating the linkage between the first fact in the patient record and a textual representation of the first portion of the free-form narration.

18. The method of claim 1, wherein the user is the clinician.

19. The method of claim 1, wherein the user is a person other than the clinician.

20. Apparatus comprising:

at least one processor; and

a memory storing processor-executable instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, perform a method comprising;

extracting a plurality of clinical facts from a free-form narration of a patient encounter provided by a clinician, wherein the plurality of clinical facts comprises a first fact and a second fact, wherein the first fact is extracted from a first portion of the free-form narration, and wherein the second fact is extracted from a second portion of the free-form narration, the extracting comprising

analyzing the free-form narration to identify one or more sets of features of at least the first and second portions of the free-form narration,

correlating the one or more sets of features to a plurality of abstract semantic concepts, and

generating computer-readable data that expresses the plurality of abstract semantic concepts as the plurality of clinical facts extracted from the free-form narration; and

providing to a user a first indicator that indicates a first linkage between the first fact and the first portion of the free-form narration, wherein providing the first indicator comprises;

in response to the user selecting the first fact via a user interface, providing to the user an indicator that distinguishes the first portion of the free-form narration from which the first fact was extracted from other portions of the free-form narration from which the first fact was not extracted; and

providing to the user a second indicator, different from the first indicator, that indicates a second linkage between the second fact and the second portion of the free-form narration.

21. The apparatus of claim 20, wherein the first indicator comprises a visual indicator.

22. The apparatus of claim 21, wherein the first indicator indicates the first linkage using a different textual and/or graphic style than the second indicator uses to indicate the second linkage.

23. The apparatus of claim 22, wherein the first indicator indicates the first linkage using a first color, and the second indicator indicates the second linkage using a second color, wherein the first color is different from the second color.

24. The apparatus of claim 21, wherein providing the first indicator comprises:

in response to a selection by the user of one of the first fact and a textual representation of the first portion of the free-form narration, visually identifying the other of the first fact and the textual representation of the first portion of the free-form narration.

25. The apparatus of claim 21, wherein providing the first indicator comprises:

in response to a selection by the user of one of the first fact and a textual representation of the first portion of the free-form narration, displaying a graphical connector between the first fact and the textual representation of the first portion of the free-form narration.

26. The apparatus of claim 21, wherein providing the first indicator comprises:

in response to a selection by the user of the first fact, scrolling a display of a textual representation of the free-form narration to a textual representation of the first portion of the free-form narration.

27. The apparatus of claim 20, wherein the first indicator comprises an audio indicator.

28. The apparatus of claim 27, wherein providing the first indicator comprises:

in response to a selection by the user of the first fact, playing an audio version of the first portion of the free-form narration.

29. The apparatus of claim 28, wherein the audio version of the first portion of the free-form narration comprises a portion of an audio recording of the clinician dictating the free-form narration.

30. The apparatus of claim 28, wherein the audio version of the first portion of the free-form narration is generated from a textual representation of the free-form narration using automatic speech synthesis.

31. The apparatus of claim 20, wherein the method further comprises automatically editing one of the first fact and a data representation of the first portion of the free-form narration in response to the user editing the other of the first fact and the data representation of the first portion of the free-form narration.

32. The apparatus of claim 20, wherein the method further comprises:

in response to the user selecting a third portion of the free-form narration, extracting a third fact from the third portion of the free-form narration.

33. The apparatus of claim 20, wherein the method further comprises formatting a textual representation of the free-form narration to produce a formatted text, wherein the plurality of clinical facts are extracted from the formatted text.

34. The apparatus of claim 33, wherein the formatting is performed in a way that facilitates the extracting of the plurality of clinical facts.

35. The apparatus of claim 20, wherein the method further comprises:

including the first fact in a patient record; and

indicating a linkage between the first fact in the patient record and the first portion of the free-form narration.

36. The apparatus of claim 35, wherein the indicating comprises:

simultaneously displaying at least a portion of the patient record and a textual representation of at least the first portion of the free-form narration; and

visually indicating the linkage between the first fact in the patient record and a textual representation of the first portion of the free-form narration.

37. The apparatus of claim 20, wherein the user is the clinician.

38. The apparatus of claim 20, wherein the user is a person other than the clinician.

39. At least one non-transitory computer-readable storage medium encoded with a plurality of computer-executable instructions that, when executed, perform a method comprising:

extracting a plurality of clinical facts from a free-form narration of a patient encounter provided by a clinician, wherein the plurality of clinical facts comprises a first fact and a second fact, wherein the first fact is extracted from a first portion of the free-form narration, and wherein the second fact is extracted from a second portion of the free-form narration, the extracting comprising

analyzing the free-form narration to identify one or more sets of features of at least the first and second portions of the free-form narration,

correlating the one or more sets of features to a plurality of abstract semantic concepts, and

generating computer-readable data that expresses the plurality of abstract semantic concepts as the plurality of clinical facts extracted from the free-form narration; and

providing to a user a first indicator that indicates a first linkage between the first fact and the first portion of the free-form narration, wherein providing the first indicator comprises;

in response to the user selecting the first fact via a user interface, providing to the user an indicator that distinguishes the first portion of the free-form narration from which the first fact was extracted from other portions of the free-form narration from which the first fact was not extracted; and

providing to the user a second indicator, different from the first indicator, that indicates a second linkage between the second fact and the second portion of the free-form narration.

40. The at least one non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 39, wherein the first indicator comprises a visual indicator.

41. The at least one non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 40, wherein the first indicator indicates the first linkage using a different textual and/or graphic style than the second indicator uses to indicate the second linkage.

42. The at least one non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 41, wherein the first indicator indicates the first linkage using a first color, and the second indicator indicates the second linkage using a second color, wherein the first color is different from the second color.

43. The at least one non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 40, wherein providing the first indicator comprises:

in response to a selection by the user of one of the first fact and a textual representation of the first portion of the free-form narration, visually identifying the other of the first fact and the textual representation of the first portion of the free-form narration.

44. The at least one non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 40, wherein providing the first indicator comprises:

in response to a selection by the user of one of the first fact and a textual representation of the first portion of the free-form narration, displaying a graphical connector between the first fact and the textual representation of the first portion of the free-form narration.

45. The at least one non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 40, wherein providing the first indicator comprises:

in response to a selection by the user of the first fact, scrolling a display of a textual representation of the free-form narration to a textual representation of the first portion of the free-form narration.

46. The at least one non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 39, wherein the first indicator comprises an audio indicator.

47. The at least one non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 46, wherein providing the first indicator comprises:

in response to a selection by the user of the first fact, playing an audio version of the first portion of the free-form narration.

48. The at least one non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 47, wherein the audio version of the first portion of the free-form narration comprises a portion of an audio recording of the clinician dictating the free-form narration.

49. The at least one non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 47, wherein the audio version of the first portion of the free-form narration is generated from a textual representation of the free-form narration using automatic speech synthesis.

50. The at least one non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 39, wherein the method further comprises automatically editing one of the first fact and a data representation of the first portion of the free-form narration in response to the user editing the other of the first fact and the data representation of the first portion of the free-form narration.

51. The at least one non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 39, wherein the method further comprises:

in response to the user selecting a third portion of the free-form narration, extracting a third fact from the third portion of the free-form narration.

52. The at least one non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 39, wherein the method further comprises formatting a textual representation of the free-form narration to produce a formatted text, wherein the plurality of clinical facts are extracted from the formatted text.

53. The at least one non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 52, wherein the formatting is performed in a way that facilitates the extracting of the plurality of clinical facts.

54. The at least one non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 39, wherein the method further comprises:

including the first fact in a patient record; and

indicating a linkage between the first fact in the patient record and the first portion of the free-form narration.

55. The at least one non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 54, wherein the indicating comprises:

simultaneously displaying at least a portion of the patient record and a textual representation of at least the first portion of the free-form narration; and

visually indicating the linkage between the first fact in the patient record and a textual representation of the first portion of the free-form narration.

56. The at least one non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 39, wherein the user is the clinician.

57. The at least one non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 39, wherein the user is a person other than the clinician.