Deep Learning-Based Natural Language Processing to Automate Esophagitis Severity Grading from the Electronic Health Records

Abstract: Radiotherapy (RT) toxicities can impair survival and quality-of-life, yet their risk factors and optimal management are under-studied. Real-world evidence holds enormous potential to improve our understanding of RT adverse events, but this information is often only documented in clinic notes and cannot, at present, be automatically extracted. To address this unmet need, we developed natural language processing (NLP) algorithms to automatically identify the presence and severity of esophagitis from notes of patients treated with thoracic RT.