Inventors:
Peter J. Haug - Salt Lake City UT
Spencer B. Koehler - Salt Lake City UT
Lee M. Christensen - Salt Lake City UT
Michael L. Gundersen - Holladay UT
Rudy E. Van Bree - Kaysville UT
Assignee:
IHC Health Services, Inc. - Salt Lake City UT
International Classification:
G06F 1727, G06F 1721, G06F 1740
Abstract:
A natural language understanding system is described which provides for the generation of concept codes from free-text medical data. A probabilistic model of lexical semantics, in the preferred embodiment of the invention implemented by means of a Bayesian network, is used to determine the most probable concept or meaning associated with a sentence or phrase. The inventive method and system includes the steps of checking for synonyms, checking spelling, performing syntactic parsing, transforming text to its "deep" or semantic form, and performing a semantic analysis based on a probabilistic model of lexical semantics. In the preferred embodiment of the invention, spell checking and transformational processing as well as semantic analysis make use of semantic probabilistic determinations.