The UK MS Register is constantly evolving in a bid to improve and expand our online platform for people with MS and our clinical partners.
One important development that the MS Register is working on right now utilises a Natural Language Processing (NLP) computer program. NLP is designed to automatically recognise the text from any scanned document and convert it into digital information, organised into a computer database. The program is called ATEMS (Automatic Text Extraction for Multiple Sclerosis).
It is hoped that such technology could significantly improve the administrative burden on our partnering NHS clinical hospitals and sites. With so many competing priorities for NHS staff we expect this program will vastly reduce the time it takes to upload MS records to the MS Register; a crucial task to enable pioneering research into the condition.
The program is still in its infancy but the concept is already producing impressive results based on a small set of 100 clinical letters. The program’s precision was compared to the accuracy of human annotations of the same letters.
This preliminary work was showcased at the Association of British Neurologist’s (ABN) Annual Meeting at the end of May 2019. More detail about this work can be seen in the abstract poster below…
The other piece of work demonstrated at the ABN event was the improvements that have been implemented into the MS Register website. Launched towards the end of last year, many of you will have already experienced the new-look website.
Since the website re-launch we’ve seen user engagement levels increase, a surge of interest in the research we’re involved in and some excellent user feedback. More about this can be seen in the abstract poster below…
The Annual Meeting of the Association of British Neurologists took place from 21 – 23 May 2019 at the EICC in Edinburgh.
