Distributed NLP Framework to create new federated data-sets

IntroductionAlthough healthcare systems generate significant amounts of structured data, there remains a untapped wealth of unstructured narrative data. In the UK, 70% of all NHS digital information is in unstructured form. The NHS has no plans to computerise this data, as it is simply would not be cost effective.
 Objectives and ApproachOur aim was to make all digitised free text within partner organisations accessible for NLP processing for research, while overcoming information governance challenges. We developed a distributed GATE-based NLP platform enabling NLP models to be automatically distributed and materialised against the free text data in each organisation to create new conventional datasets, which can then be transmitted back using an established governance model.
 This work adds NLP capability to the UK’s National Research Data Appliances, deployed throughout Wales and beyond and uses many open source components enabling a deployment without additional software licence costs, leading to increased potential use cases.
 ResultsWe have been able to demonstrate a fully federated network of analytical nodes into NHS Wales, which takes the analytical NLP mode