Evidence map›Paper›PMID 28298265›Full record

ArticleJournal of medical Internet research2017

Supervised Machine Learning Algorithms Can Classify Open-Text Feedback of Doctor Performance With Human-Level Accuracy.

Chris Gibbons, Suzanne Richards, Jose Maria Valderas, John Campbell

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Journal of medical Internet research, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 16 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
16citing papers in PubMed, 1 pooled it
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

16 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.

  1. Pooled it
  2. Article
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  5. Article
  6. Article
  7. Changes in Doctor-Patient Relationships in China during COVID-19: A Text Mining Analysis.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022
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  10. Review
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  12. Machine learning in medicine: a practical introduction.BMC medical research methodology · 2019
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  13. Article
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  15. Analyzing Medication Error Reports in Clinical Settings: An Automated Pipeline Approach.AMIA ... Annual Symposium proceedings. AMIA Symposium · 2018
    Article
  16. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

4 authors.

Chris GibbonsCentre for Health Services Research, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom.ORCID 0000-0002-4732-7305
Suzanne RichardsLeeds Institute for Health Sciences, University of Leeds, Leeds, United Kingdom.ORCID 0000-0003-1416-0569
Jose Maria ValderasPrimary Care Research Group, University of Exeter, Exeter, United Kingdom.ORCID 0000-0002-9299-1555
John CampbellPrimary Care Research Group, University of Exeter, Exeter, United Kingdom.ORCID 0000-0002-6752-3493

Funding

Department of Health PDF-2014-07-028
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundMachine learning techniques may be an effective and efficient way to classify open-text reports on doctor's activity for the purposes of quality assurance, safety, and continuing professional development.

objectiveThe objective of the study was to evaluate the accuracy of machine learning algorithms trained to classify open-text reports of doctor performance and to assess the potential for classifications to identify significant differences in doctors' professional performance in the United Kingdom.

methodsWe used 1636 open-text comments (34,283 words) relating to the performance of 548 doctors collected from a survey of clinicians' colleagues using the General Medical Council Colleague Questionnaire (GMC-CQ). We coded 77.75% (1272/1636) of the comments into 5 global themes (innovation, interpersonal skills, popularity, professionalism, and respect) using a qualitative framework. We trained 8 machine learning algorithms to classify comments and assessed their performance using several training samples. We evaluated doctor performance using the GMC-CQ and compared scores between doctors with different classifications using t tests.

resultsIndividual algorithm performance was high (range F score=.68 to .83). Interrater agreement between the algorithms and the human coder was highest for codes relating to "popular" (recall=.97), "innovator" (recall=.98), and "respected" (recall=.87) codes and was lower for the "interpersonal" (recall=.80) and "professional" (recall=.82) codes. A 10-fold cross-validation demonstrated similar performance in each analysis. When combined together into an ensemble of multiple algorithms, mean human-computer interrater agreement was .88. Comments that were classified as "respected," "professional," and "interpersonal" related to higher doctor scores on the GMC-CQ compared with comments that were not classified (P<.05). Scores did not vary between doctors who were rated as popular or innovative and those who were not rated at all (P>.05).

conclusionsMachine learning algorithms can classify open-text feedback of doctor performance into multiple themes derived by human raters with high performance. Colleague open-text comments that signal respect, professionalism, and being interpersonal may be key indicators of doctor's performance.

Indexed as

AlgorithmsClinical CompetenceSupervised Machine LearningFeedbackHumansPhysiciansSurveys and Questionnairesdata miningfeedbackmachine learningsurveys and questionnaireswork performance

Identifiers

PMID28298265
PMCPMC5371715

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
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Registered trials

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.