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Proceedings of the Annual Symposium on Computer Application in Medical Care logoLink to Proceedings of the Annual Symposium on Computer Application in Medical Care
. 1991:843–847.

A free-text processing system to capture physical findings: Canonical Phrase Identification System (CAPIS).

R Lin 1, L Lenert 1, B Middleton 1, S Shiffman 1
PMCID: PMC2247649  PMID: 1807726

Abstract

The task of gathering detailed patient information from free-text medical records presents a significant barrier to clinical research. In this paper, we describe a prototype system for extracting physical examination findings from dictated admission summaries. Our computer program applies a concept-based free-text processing algorithm that identifies user-selected target physical examination findings. We are using the extraction system to enrich an existing clinical database. The system was evaluated by comparing the physical examination findings extracted by our computer program with findings extracted by an independent investigator. Our prototype system was able to recall 92 percent (sensitivity) of the relevant physical findings, with a precision of 96 percent (positive predictive value).

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Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

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