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PeerJ Computer Science
Article . 2025 . Peer-reviewed
License: CC BY
Data sources: Crossref
DBLP
Article . 2025
Data sources: DBLP
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A computational approach to predicting principal discharge diagnoses for enhanced morbidity surveillance

Authors: Daniel Arias-Garzón; Oscar Jaramillo Robledo; Andrés Paolo Castaño Vélez; Reinel Tabares-Soto;

A computational approach to predicting principal discharge diagnoses for enhanced morbidity surveillance

Abstract

Accurate principal discharge diagnoses are fundamental for effective morbidity surveillance, yet healthcare systems worldwide are plagued by imprecise and non-specific coding, hindering public health analysis and resource allocation. This article introduces a novel computational model designed to address this challenge by automatically predicting specific discharge diagnoses from a combination of structured and unstructured clinical data. Our approach utilizes a dual-pipeline architecture to process heterogeneous information streams. The structured data pipeline systematically extracts diagnostic indicators from laboratory results, pharmacy records, and surgical procedure codes (CUPS). Concurrently, the unstructured data pipeline employs a sophisticated multi-stage natural language processing (NLP) framework to interpret free-text radiology reports and clinical notes. This NLP pipeline first uses a fine-tuned bidirectional encoder representations from transformers (BERT) model to accurately detect and filter out negated or uncertain statements. Subsequently, a Sentence-Transformer model performs semantic similarity analysis to match affirmative clinical findings against a curated, expert-validated knowledge base of diagnostic sentences. For novel or complex cases not covered by the knowledge base, the system leverages the generative capabilities of GPT-3.5 Turbo as a fallback mechanism. The model is implemented as a scalable, service-oriented application using a MySQL database and a FastAPI framework, ensuring seamless integration with existing hospital electronic health record (EHR) systems. Performance was rigorously evaluated using a custom 0-5 scoring metric, developed in collaboration with a thoracic surgery specialist and validated by a team of three hospital epidemiologists, to assess clinical accuracy. Results demonstrate high performance in identifying both primary and secondary diagnoses, with notable success in common critical conditions like pulmonary embolism. Furthermore, the model shows significant potential for scalability, as performance on rare conditions such as epidural hematoma improved substantially with the addition of only a few expert-defined diagnostic patterns. This open-source computational tool offers a robust and economically viable solution for healthcare institutions to enhance the precision of their diagnostic coding, thereby improving the quality of morbidity data without requiring disruptive changes to established clinical workflows.

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selected citations
These citations are derived from selected sources.
This is an alternative to the "Influence" indicator, which also reflects the overall/total impact of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network (diachronically).
BIP!Citations provided by BIP!
popularity
This indicator reflects the "current" impact/attention (the "hype") of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network.
BIP!Popularity provided by BIP!
influence
This indicator reflects the overall/total impact of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network (diachronically).
BIP!Influence provided by BIP!
impulse
This indicator reflects the initial momentum of an article directly after its publication, based on the underlying citation network.
BIP!Impulse provided by BIP!
0
Average
Average
Average