⚡ Quick Summary
This study utilized natural language processing to analyze clinical documentation trends related to palliative care and metastatic cancer. Findings revealed that while terms associated with these areas appeared in similar contexts, their relationship has weakened over time, indicating a shift in documentation practices.
🔍 Key Details
- 📊 Dataset: Inpatient clinical notes from adults hospitalized at the University of California, San Francisco system.
- ⚙️ Technology: Unsupervised language models, specifically word2vec.
- 📈 Analysis Method: Cosine similarity and linear regression to assess term relationships over time.
- 🗓️ Timeframe: Analysis conducted over multiple years.
🔑 Key Takeaways
- 📊 Clinical notes provide valuable insights into the documentation of palliative care in metastatic cancer.
- 💡 The study found a close relationship between terms related to metastatic cancer and palliative care in clinical notes.
- 📉 Over time, this relationship has weakened, suggesting a change in how these terms are documented.
- 🔍 The analysis was robust, including sensitivity checks for patients with specific diagnosis codes.
- 🌟 This research highlights the potential of natural language processing in understanding clinical documentation trends.
- 🧠 Insights gained can inform future practices in palliative care documentation.
- 📅 The study emphasizes the importance of continuous evaluation of clinical documentation practices.
📚 Background
Palliative care plays a crucial role in enhancing the quality of life for patients with advanced cancer. Understanding how healthcare providers document this care is essential for improving communication and treatment strategies. With the rise of natural language processing, researchers can now analyze clinical notes to uncover trends and shifts in documentation practices over time.
🗒️ Study
The study conducted at the University of California, San Francisco, aimed to explore the lexical associations between terms related to palliative care and metastatic cancer. By analyzing inpatient clinical notes using advanced language models, the researchers sought to understand how these terms have been documented and how their relationships have evolved.
📈 Results
The analysis revealed that terms associated with metastatic cancer and palliative care appeared in similar contexts within clinical notes each year. However, the strength of this relationship, as measured by cosine similarity, has diminished over time. This suggests that while these concepts are still documented together, the frequency and context of their co-occurrence have changed.
🌍 Impact and Implications
The findings of this study have significant implications for the field of palliative care. By highlighting the evolving nature of clinical documentation, healthcare providers can better understand the importance of maintaining clear and consistent communication regarding palliative care for patients with metastatic cancer. This research underscores the need for ongoing training and awareness in documentation practices to ensure that the quality of care remains a priority.
🔮 Conclusion
This study illustrates the power of natural language processing in analyzing clinical documentation trends. As the relationship between palliative care and metastatic cancer documentation weakens, it becomes increasingly important for healthcare professionals to adapt their practices. By embracing these insights, we can enhance the quality of care provided to patients facing advanced malignancies. Continued research in this area will be vital for improving documentation and ultimately patient outcomes.
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Lexical associations can characterize clinical documentation trends related to palliative care and metastatic cancer.
Abstract
Palliative care is known to improve quality of life in advanced cancer. Natural language processing offers insights to how documentation around palliative care in relation to metastatic cancer has changed. We analyzed inpatient clinical notes using unsupervised language models that learn how words related to metastatic cancer (e.g. “mets”, “metastases”) and palliative care (e.g. “palliative care”, “pal care”) appear relationally and change over time. We included any note from adults hospitalized at the University of California, San Francisco system. The primary outcome was how similarly terms related to metastatic cancer and palliative care appeared in notes using a mathematical approach (cosine similarity). We used word2vec to model language numerically as vectors. Relational data between vectors was captured using cosine similarity. We performed linear regression to identify changes in these relationships of terms over time. As a sensitivity analysis, we performed the same analysis per year restricted only to patients with an ICD-9/10 diagnosis code for metastatic cancer. Metastatic cancer and palliative care terms appeared in similar contexts in clinical notes each year, suggesting a close relationship in documentation. However, over time, this relationship weakened, with these terms becoming less commonly used together as measured by cosine similarities. We found similar trends when we retrained models just on patients with a diagnosis code for metastatic cancer. Text in clinical notes offers unique insights into how medical providers document palliative care in patients with advanced malignancies and how these documentation practices evolve over time.
Author: [‘Yang HY’, ‘Raghunathan K’, ‘Widera E’, ‘Pantilat SZ’, ‘Brender T’, ‘Heintz TA’, ‘Espejo E’, ‘Boscardin J’, ‘Mills H’, ‘Lee A’, ‘Berchuck J’, ‘Cobert J’]
Journal: Sci Rep
Citation: Yang HY, et al. Lexical associations can characterize clinical documentation trends related to palliative care and metastatic cancer. Lexical associations can characterize clinical documentation trends related to palliative care and metastatic cancer. 2025; 15:17245. doi: 10.1038/s41598-025-01828-z