Evidence map›Paper›PMID 40260424›Full record

ArticleClinical epidemiology2025

Extracting Cognitive Impairment Assessment Information From Unstructured Notes in Electronic Health Records Using Natural Language Processing Tools: Validation with Clinical Assessment Data.

Kuan-Yuan Wang, Mufaddal Mahesri, John Novoa-Laurentiev, Lily G Bessette, Cassandra York, Heidi Zakoul, Su Been Lee, Kerry Ngan, Li Zhou, Dae Hyun Kim and 1 more

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Clinical epidemiology, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
1citing papers in PubMed
–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

1 citing paper in PubMed.

  1. 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.

Kuan-Yuan Wang *National Cheng Kung University Hospital, College of Medicine, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan.
Mufaddal Mahesri *Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA, USA.ORCID 0000-0002-6684-2337
John Novoa-LaurentievBrigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA, USA.
Lily G BessetteBrigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA, USA.ORCID 0000-0003-1088-8579
Cassandra YorkBrigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA, USA.ORCID 0000-0001-5940-0744
Heidi ZakoulBrigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA, USA.
Su Been LeeBrigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA, USA.
Kerry NganBrigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA, USA.
Li Zhou *Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA, USA.
Dae Hyun Kim *Marcus Institute for Aging Research, Hebrew SeniorLife, Boston, MA, USA.ORCID 0000-0001-7290-6838
Kueiyu Joshua Lin *Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA, USA.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Purpose: We aimed to develop a Natural Language Processing (NLP) algorithm to extract cognitive scores from electronic health records (EHR) data and compare them with cognitive function recorded by Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS)-mandated clinical assessments in nursing homes and home health visits. Patients and Methods: We identified a cohort of Medicare beneficiaries who had either the Minimum Data Set (MDS) or Outcome and Assessment Information Set (OASIS) linked to EHR data from the Research Patient Data Registry (Mass General Brigham, Boston, MA) from 2010 to 2019. We applied an NLP approach to identify the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) and the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) scores from unstructured clinician notes in EHR. Using the NLP-extracted MoCA or MMSE scores from EHR, we compared mean differences of extracted MoCA or MMSE by cognition status determined by MDS (impaired vs intact cognition) and OASIS (severe impairment vs intact cognition) data, respectively. Results: Our study cohort had 7419 patients who had MDS (19.7%) or OASIS (80.3%) assessments, with a mean age of 80 (SD=7) years and 60% female. In EHR, the NLP algorithm extracted cognitive test scores with 97% accuracy (95% CI: 92-99%) for MoCA and 100% accuracy (95% CI: 84-100%) for MMSE. In MDS, the mean difference in extracted MoCA was -5.6 (95% CI: -8.7, -2.4, p=0.0008), and the mean difference in extracted MMSE was -7.9 (95% CI: -12.4, -3.5, p=0.0012). In OASIS, the mean difference in extracted MoCA and extracted MMSE was -4.8 (95% CI: -9.1, -0.6, p=0.0006) and -4.5 (95% CI: -9.5, -0.5, p=0.0182), respectively. Conclusion: We developed an NLP algorithm to accurately extract cognitive scores from unstructured EHR, and these extracted cognitive scores were well correlated with cognition function recorded in CMS-mandated clinical assessments. This could help researchers identify patients with various degrees of cognitive impairment in EHR-based research.

Indexed as

cognitive impairmentelectronic health recordsmini-mental status examinationMontreal Cognitive Assessmentnatural language processing

Identifiers

PMID40260424
PMCPMC12009745

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