Evidence map›Paper›PMID 40057196›Full record

ArticleAmerican journal of transplantation : official journal of the American Society of Transplantation and the American Society of Transplant Surgeons2025

Development of a natural language processing algorithm to extract social determinants of health from clinician notes.

Hamed Zaribafzadeh, Jacqueline B Henson, Norine W Chan, Ursula Rogers, Wendy Webster, Tyler Schappe, Fan Li, Roland A Matsouaka, Allan D Kirk, Ricardo Henao and 1 more

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in American journal of transplantation : official journal of the American Society of Transplantation and the American Society of Transplant Surgeons, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
3citing 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

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

  1. Pooled it
  2. Article
  3. 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

11 authors.

Hamed ZaribafzadehDepartment of Surgery, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, USA.
Jacqueline B HensonDepartment of Medicine, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, USA.
Norine W ChanDepartment of Surgery, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, USA.
Ursula RogersDepartment of Surgery, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, USA.
Wendy WebsterDepartment of Surgery, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, USA.
Tyler SchappeDepartment of Biostatistics and Bioinformatics, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, USA.
Fan LiDepartment of Statistical Science, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, USA.
Roland A MatsouakaDepartment of Biostatistics and Bioinformatics, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, USA.
Allan D KirkDepartment of Surgery, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, USA.
Ricardo HenaoDepartment of Surgery, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, USA; Department of Biostatistics and Bioinformatics, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, USA.
Lisa M McElroyDepartment of Surgery, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, USA. Electronic address: lisa.mcelroy@duke.edu.

Funding

Increasing Access to Transplant through Improved Clinical Decision MakingK08MD017632 · NIMHD · DUKE UNIVERSITY · PI Lisa M McElroy · 2022 to 2026
$551k
NIMHD NIH HHS K08 MD017632
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Disparities in access to the organ transplant waitlist are well-documented, but research into modifiable factors has been limited due to a lack of access to organized prewaitlisting data. This study aimed to develop a natural language processing (NLP) algorithm to extract social determinants of health (SDOH) from free-text notes and quantify the association of SDOH with access to the transplant waitlist. We collected 261 802 clinician notes from 11 111 adults referred for kidney or liver transplants between 2016 and 2022 at the Duke University Health System. An SDOH ontology and a rule-based NLP algorithm were created to extract and organize terms. Education, transportation, and age were the most frequent terms identified. Negative sentiment and refer were the most negatively associated features with listing in both kidney and liver transplant patients. Income and employment for the kidney, and judgment and positive sentiment for liver were the most positively associated features with the listing. This study suggests that the integration of NLP tools into the transplant clinical workflow could help improve collection and organization of SDOH and inform center-level efforts at resource allocation, potentially improving access to the transplant waitlist and posttransplant outcomes.

Indexed as

AlgorithmsElectronic Health RecordsKidney TransplantationLiver TransplantationNatural Language ProcessingSocial Determinants of HealthAdultFemaleFollow-Up StudiesHumansMaleMiddle AgedPrognosisnatural language processingsocial determinants of health

Identifiers

PMID40057196
PMCPMC12103990

What OpenQuestion holds

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Registered trials

None linked

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.