ACCUMULATE - ACquiring CrUcial Medical information Using LAnguage TEchnology
From 01-01-2016 to 30-06-2020
Description
General goal:
ACCUMULATE will automatically recognize crucial information in the free text of clinical reports1
written in English and Dutch by designing, developing and evaluating advanced language technology (LT)
for deep semantic processing of the texts which are often morpho-syntactically not well-formed. An extra
focus is on easy portability of the technology across domains and languages.
ACquiring CrUcial Medical information Using LAnguage Technology (ACCUMULATE) is an important
and necessary step in medical knowledge and healthcare management sectors and has specific applications
in the drug development cycle and patient recruitment. A large amount of valuable medical knowledge
is now buried in free text and we absolutely need advanced natural language processing tools to mine this
knowledge. Studies have demonstrated the large economic value of text analytics, especially in medical
sciences and healthcare management (e.g., McKinsey Report 2011, JISC Report 2012). These studies
pinpoint the need for research to further deepen the semantic extractions using advanced language
technologies so as to substantially enlarge the uptake of the technologies.
The ACCUMULATE technology will have a large impact as multiple companies in the industrial
advisory board (IAB) of the project have recognized the machine understanding of free texts in clinical
reports as the missing link in medical knowledge management and hospital document management
systems. The companies Agfa Healthcare, CompuGroup, CrossLang, Custodix, IMS, InterSystems,
Ontoforce, SmartSpoken and Textgain are eager to integrate the results of the language technology in their
systems. In addition, the end users, which are the pharmaceutical companies (Janssen Pharmaceutica) and
hospitals have also shown a large interest in adopting the ACCUMULATE technologies. Last but not least,
a substantial impact is to be expected on language technology specialized in content understanding (on non
well-formed texts in multiple language) in Flanders. This influence might go as far as content
understanding of speech (e.g., on the processing of clinical speech data). Beyond uptake of the
technologies, social impact and benefits can be expected in the management of healthcare by governments,
health insurers, and other stakeholders.
Team
- Tim Van den Bulcke, Co-promoter (External)
- Elien Bellon, Co-promoter (External)
- Walter Daelemans, Co-promoter (External)
- Jan Aerts, Co-promoter
- Bart Van den Bosch, Co-promoter (External)
- Patrick Van Eecke, External Partner (External)
- Maarten Laga, External Partner (External)
- Lieven Annemans, External Partner (External)
- Griet Jappens, External Partner (External)
- Marie-Francine Moens, Promoter (External)
Financing
Funding: IWT - Agentschap voor Innovatie door Wetenschap en Technologie
Program/Grant Type: IWT SBO - IWT Projects Strategic Basic Research
Events
2/09/2024:
PhD defense - Martijn Oldenhof
Machine Learning for Advanced Chemical Analysis and Structure Recognition in Drug Discovery
3/09/2024:
Meet the Jury Igor Tetko on Advanced Machine Learning in Drug Discovery
12/09/2024:
Multimodal analysis of cell-free DNA for sensitive cancer detection in low-coverage and low-sample settings
Seminar by Antoine Passemiers
News
STADIUS Alumni Herman Verrelst – new CEO of Biocartis
08 June 2017
Herman Verrelst, the founder of KU Leuven spin-off Cartagenia, who has been working in Silicon Valley, US for the last few years will be returning to Belgium to follow the steps of Rudi Pauwels as CEO of the Belgian diagnostic company, Biocartis.
Supporting healthcare policymaking via machine learning – batteries included!
29 May 2017
STADIUS takes the lead in the data analytics efforts in an ambitious European Project MIDAS.
Marc Claesen gives an interview about his PhD for the magazine of the Faculty of Engineering Sciences "Geniaal"
10 February 2017
Did you know that in Belgium approximately one third of type 2 diabetes patients are unaware of their condition?
Joos Vandewalle is nieuwe voorzitter KVAB
09 October 2016
Op 5 oktober 2016 heeft de Algemene Vergadering van de Academie KVAB Joos Vandewalle verkozen tot voorzitter van de KVAB.