Bot: Discuss:National Library of Medicine working on search engine that will use natural language processing

2012-02-10T22:17:54Z

Discuss:National Library of Medicine working on search engine that will use natural language processing

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|Subject=Discuss:National Library of Medicine working on search engine that will use natural language processing
|From=[carlos@myhealthcareinnovation.com]
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|Date=10 Feb 2012 22:17:04 GMT
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<code>http://t.co/ZejfUAeR | 
 
The National Library of Medicine <http://www.nlm.nih.gov/> is working on a 
search engine that will scan thousands of medical records to turn up 
documents related to patient queries. That sounds exactly like what Google 
and Bing can already do, but it��s different. 
 
It will employ Watson-like search and retrieval techniques to return a very 
specific set of one to three documents. 
Watson<http://www-03.ibm.com/innovation/us/watson/index.html>, 
IMB��s robot with artificial intelligence capabilities, 
smashed*Jeopardy!* records 
when it appeared on the gameshow last year. One trait that makes Watson 
intelligent is that the computer can understand natural language as opposed 
to a Google query (i.e. ��cure common cold�� instead of ��what��s the cure for 
the common cold?��), something that researchers at the National Library of 
Medicine (NLM) want to try to replicate with their own machine. 
 
Another characteristic of intelligent computers is that they learn. This 
occurs over time and through repetition. 
 
��In order to train the machine we had to have a large set of questions in 
the vernacular, not cleaned up to grammar, and we had to have a lot of 
associated, or reasonably associated, answers,�� Dr. Milton Corn, deputy 
director for research and education at NLM, said. 
 
Having a database of answers �� not just questions �� is key because when the 
computer turns up a wrong answer, researchers need to show the computer 
what the right answer looks like. Corn said NLM gets millions of queries 
from patients every year, but they��re answered through results generated by 
NLM��s databases PubMed <http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/> and 
MedlinePlus<http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/>, 
as opposed to health care professionals. 
 
In his search for a set of published medical questions and answers, Corn 
came across Ask the Doctor <http://www.askthedoctor.com/>, a Canadian 
website where doctors answer individual patient questions. Ask the Doctor 
agreed to share a set of about 8,000 medical questions and their answers 
with NLM for its artificial intelligence project. 
 
Right now the computer is in Rocky Balboa mode. 
 
Researchers are training it by feeding it questions, then feeding it 
answers and testing it. Then they repeat the process. The major hurdle for 
the computer is getting to a point where it can understand natural language. 
 
And if the machine ever becomes ready for public use, patients, too, will 
have to be trained to approach the Q&A process differently. Patients will 
need to phrase their questions like they��re talking to their doctor, not 
Google. This will lay the groundwork for the possible incorporation of 
voice technology later on. 
 
Is NLM also laying the groundwork for computer replacement of physicians? 
Not quite. 
 
��We are not contemplating �� unless this were an unbelievably fantastic 
success �� letting a machine practice medicine,�� Corn said. 
 
If this early stage does prove to be successful, the project might expand 
with a partnership with IBM, which has expressed an interest in working 
with NLM. 
 
��We would like to see whether Watson could be adapted to health questions,�� 
Corn said. 
 
But first, Watson will be in for some medical education. 
 
��It doesn��t know much about health at the moment,�� Corn said. 
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Bot: Discuss:National Library of Medicine working on search engine that will use natural language processing