Evidence map›Paper›PMID 41961785›Full record

ArticlePloS one2026

Applying machine learning and natural language processing to patient safety event reports: Identifying patterns of cardiovascular diagnostic errors.

Azade Tabaie, Alberta K Tran, Codrin Parau, Sonita S Bennett, Sadaf Kazi, Kelly Smith, John Yosaitis, Kristen E Miller

Abstract read
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Article in PloS one, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.

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1 · What the graph read from it

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2 · The registry

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3 · Its place in the literature

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4 · The record

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5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

8 authors.

Azade TabaieCenter for Biostatistics, Informatics, and Data Science, MedStar Health Research Institute, Washington, District of Columbia, United States of America.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1869-5923
Alberta K TranDepartment of Emergency Medicine, Georgetown University Medical Center, Washington, District of Columbia, United States of America.
Codrin ParauNational Center for Human Factors in Healthcare, MedStar Health Research Institute, Washington, District of Columbia, United States of America.
Sonita S BennettCenter for Biostatistics, Informatics, and Data Science, MedStar Health Research Institute, Washington, District of Columbia, United States of America.
Sadaf KaziDepartment of Emergency Medicine, Georgetown University Medical Center, Washington, District of Columbia, United States of America.
Kelly SmithInstitute of Health Policy, Management & Evaluation, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
John YosaitisSchool of Medicine, Georgetown University, Washington, District of Columbia, United States of America.
Kristen E MillerDepartment of Emergency Medicine, Georgetown University Medical Center, Washington, District of Columbia, United States of America.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

objectiveTo explore the utility of natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning (ML) techniques to identify unsafe conditions leading to cardiovascular diagnostic errors using patient safety event (PSE) reports data.

methodsPSE reports from January 2016 to August 2021 from a multi-hospital healthcare system in the mid-Atlantic region of the United States were included in this study. To have the true cardiovascular diagnostic errors labels for PSE reports, each individual PSE report was manually reviewed to find clinician-reported narratives describing current definitions of cardiovascular diagnostic errors. The PSE reports which contained cardiovascular diagnostic errors-related narratives were labeled as one and zero otherwise. Four binary ML models were employed to identify cardiovascular diagnostic errors narratives and common features from annotated PSE reports data: (1) simple logistic regression, (2) elastic net, (3) XGBoost, and (4) deep neural networks.

resultsXGBoost outperformed the rest of the models in identifying cardiovascular diagnostic errors -related reports and achieved high performance metrics on the testing data (AUROC = 0.914, specificity = 0.982, PPV = 0.866, accuracy = 0.929, F-1 score = 0.738, and AUPRC = 0.783). Pacemaker emerged as a significant signal for cardiovascular diagnostic errors in our PSE reports. Our analysis demonstrated that ordering MRI for patients with pacemaker was a frequent theme among cardiovascular diagnostic errors-related PSE reports containing the word pacemaker. Order, EKG, cardiac, and chest were the five most important features in identifying cardiovascular diagnostic errors events. These words were utilized in explaining heart conditions, associated care process, and related safety incidents.

conclusionsFindings from our study demonstrates the feasibility of ML and NLP techniques in identifying cardiovascular diagnostic errors-related reports among the existing PSE data sources. However, validation in external healthcare systems is needed before broader application.

Indexed as

Cardiovascular DiseasesDiagnostic ErrorsMachine LearningNatural Language ProcessingPatient SafetyBoosting Machine Learning AlgorithmsHumansPredictive Learning ModelsUnited States

Identifiers

PMID41961785
PMCPMC13068243

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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.