This chapter contains sections titled: Section Contents, Natural Language Understanding has an Esteemed History, Representation and Frames, Intelligent Computer Coaches

The advent of automobiles and airplanes has revolutionized our traveling just as profoundly as computers are currently changing all aspects of information handling. Interestingly, the clinical practice of medicine may have been the last island of resistance for this new technology. This imperviousness was often misinterpreted 1 as a direct consequence of physician conservatism and/or excessive concern about medical confidentiality. The personal experience of this author is that the primary retarding reason has not been fully articulated. Medical communication, whether verbal expression or written notes or scientific manuscripts that consist of numeric data, is relatively easy to computerize. But free narrative text was widely viewed as incompatible with computer technology. The latter perception was probably the true barrier impeding clinical use of computers. Closer study of medical communication revealed two discrete difficulties. First, standardized terminology is a basic prerequisite for quantitative information transfer. Yet for the last three decades, American medicine has functioned without a standard terminology. Second, the richness of the English language in synonyms, near-synonyms, idioms, and metaphors increases the variability of stating the same facts, which in turn compounds the task of the computer. Linguistic nuances often play an important role in clinical communication. A medically intelligent automated text processor should conserve the intended meaning of the practitioner even if it is only implied. This is a difficult task. Despite intensive research in this field, 2-5 it is understandable how free medical narrative firmly resisted computerization.

Natural Language Undeastanding and Intelligent Computer Coaches

Citations

Automated processing of narrative medical text—a new tool for clinical drug studies

References

Automated processing of narrative medical text—a new tool for clinical drug studies

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