Using natural language processing to find adverse events

A method for automatically classifying clinical descriptions of patients, the method comprising:

• receiving, with one or more processors, at least one clinical description file from a data repository comprising a plurality of clinical description files, wherein each clinical description file comprises text relating to the use of a medical treatment device on a corresponding patient;
• determining, with the one or more processors, a position of a target word within the text of the at least one clinical description file;
• determining, with the one or more processors, whether at least one of a plurality of predetermined body-part words is located within an active region, wherein the active region comprises the target word and a predetermined number of words within the text occurring immediately before and immediately after the target word;
• and
• writing, with the one or more processors, a flag to a header of the clinical description file in response to a determination that the active region contains at least one of the plurality of predetermined body-part words.

A system for automatically classifying clinical descriptions of patients, the system comprising one or more processors configured to:

• receive, from a data repository, at least one clinical description file comprising text relating to the use of a medical treatment device on a patient;
• determine a position of a target word within the text of the at least one clinical description file;
• determine whether at least one of a plurality of predetermined body-part words is located within an active region, wherein the active region comprises the target word and a predetermined number of words within the text occurring immediately before and immediately after the target word;
• and
• write a flag to a header of the clinical description file in response to a determination that the active region contains at least one of the plurality of predetermined body-part words.

A non-transitory computer readable storage medium having instructions stored thereon, which, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to:

• receive, from a data repository, at least one clinical description file comprising text relating to the use of a medical treatment device on a patient;
• determine a position of a target word within the text of the at least one clinical description file;
• determine whether at least one of a plurality of predetermined body-part words is located within an active region, wherein the active region comprises the target word and a predetermined number of words within the text occurring immediately before and immediately after the target word;
• and
• write a flag to a header of the clinical description file in response to a determination that the active region contains at least one of the plurality of predetermined body-part words.