NATURAL LANGUAGE PROCESSING IN HEALTHCARE

Abstract

Natural language processing (NLP)  refers to the process of using of computer algorithms to identify key elements in everyday language and extract meaning from unstructured spoken or written communication.  Healthcare is the biggest user of the NLP tools. It is expected that NLP tools should  be able to bridge the gap between the mountain of data generated daily and the limited cognitive capacity of the human mind.  This paper provides a brief introduction on the use of NLP in healthcare.