title: Summarising complex ICU data in natural language: demonstration of the BT-45 system.
abstract: As ICUs generate increasing amounts of information, writing medical reports involves complex time-consuming reasoning to build a coherent text which will be meaningful to those who will use it for decision making (e.g.: for nurse handover). Moreover, it has been shown that summarizing complex multi-channel physiological and discrete data in natural language (text) can lead to better decision-making in the intensive care unit (ICU). To facilitate this summarisation, as part of the BabyTalk project, we have developed a system called BT-45 that automatically generates textual summaries from periods of continuous and discrete data in a neonatal ICU. The demonstration will show the system running on real data and will detail the steps in the construction of the final text. Although these summaries are not yet as good as those generated by human experts, we have demonstrated experimentally that they lead to as good decision-making as can be achieved through presenting the same data graphically.
authors.affiliation: Department of Computing Science, University of Aberdeen, UK.
authors.forename: François
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Portet
authors.forename: Albert
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Gatt
authors.forename: Ehud
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Reiter
authors.forename: Jim
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Hunter
authors.forename: Somayajulu
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sripada
authors.forename: Cindy
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Sykes
authors.forename: Yvonne
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Freer
authors.forename: Neil
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: McIntosh
authors.forename: Marian
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: van der Meulen
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Logie
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D001185:Artificial Intelligence; D020000:Decision Support Systems, Clinical; D016247:Information Storage and Retrieval / Q000379:methods; D007363:Intensive Care Units, Neonatal; D008487:Medical History Taking / Q000379:methods*; D008498:Medical Record Linkage; D016347:Medical Records Systems, Computerized; D008991:Monitoring, Physiologic / Q000379:methods*; D009323:Natural Language Processing; D006113:United Kingdom