Feature Extraction and Visualization of Respiratory Therapist Notes for Pediatric Long-Term Ventilator Dependent Patients

Children with long-term ventilator dependence are a growing population that generate substantial cost to the healthcare system and require very lengthy admissions to initiate support. Respiratory therapy notes contain free-text descriptions of key respiratory events during these admissions but are underutilized. Using a retrospective electronic health record data set from 101 patients, we identified more clinically concerning patients, extracted key features from the free-text notes that differentiated these patients, and displayed those features in a timeline visualization that has implications for clinical decision support.