Le Khang Duy Ricky, Tay Samuel Boon Ping, Choy Kay Tai, Verjans Johan, Sasanelli Nicola, Kong Joseph C H
Department of General Surgical Specialties, The Royal Melbourne Hospital, Melbourne, VIC, Australia.
Department of Surgical Oncology, Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, Melbourne, VIC, Australia.
Front Surg. 2024 May 17;11:1403540. doi: 10.3389/fsurg.2024.1403540. eCollection 2024.
Natural language processing tools are becoming increasingly adopted in multiple industries worldwide. They have shown promising results however their use in the field of surgery is under-recognised. Many trials have assessed these benefits in small settings with promising results before large scale adoption can be considered in surgery. This study aims to review the current research and insights into the potential for implementation of natural language processing tools into surgery.
A narrative review was conducted following a computer-assisted literature search on Medline, EMBASE and Google Scholar databases. Papers related to natural language processing tools and consideration into their use for surgery were considered.
Current applications of natural language processing tools within surgery are limited. From the literature, there is evidence of potential improvement in surgical capability and service delivery, such as through the use of these technologies to streamline processes including surgical triaging, data collection and auditing, surgical communication and documentation. Additionally, there is potential to extend these capabilities to surgical academia to improve processes in surgical research and allow innovation in the development of educational resources. Despite these outcomes, the evidence to support these findings are challenged by small sample sizes with limited applicability to broader settings.
With the increasing adoption of natural language processing technology, such as in popular forms like ChatGPT, there has been increasing research in the use of these tools within surgery to improve surgical workflow and efficiency. This review highlights multifaceted applications of natural language processing within surgery, albeit with clear limitations due to the infancy of the infrastructure available to leverage these technologies. There remains room for more rigorous research into broader capability of natural language processing technology within the field of surgery and the need for cross-sectoral collaboration to understand the ways in which these algorithms can best be integrated.
自然语言处理工具在全球多个行业的应用越来越广泛。它们已显示出令人鼓舞的成果，然而其在外科领域的应用尚未得到充分认可。许多试验在小规模环境中评估了这些益处，并取得了有前景的结果，之后才考虑在外科手术中大规模采用。本研究旨在回顾当前关于将自然语言处理工具应用于外科手术的研究及见解。
在对Medline、EMBASE和谷歌学术数据库进行计算机辅助文献检索后，进行了叙述性综述。纳入了与自然语言处理工具及其在外科手术中的应用考量相关的论文。
自然语言处理工具目前在外科手术中的应用有限。从文献来看，有证据表明在手术能力和服务提供方面可能会有所改善，例如通过使用这些技术来简化包括手术分诊、数据收集与审核、手术沟通和文档记录等流程。此外，还有可能将这些能力扩展到外科学术界，以改善外科研究流程，并在教育资源开发方面实现创新。尽管有这些成果，但支持这些发现的证据受到样本量小的挑战，且对更广泛环境的适用性有限。
随着自然语言处理技术的日益普及，如ChatGPT等流行形式，在外科手术中使用这些工具以改善手术工作流程和效率的研究也越来越多。本综述强调了自然语言处理在外科手术中的多方面应用，尽管由于利用这些技术的现有基础设施尚不完善而存在明显局限性。在外科领域，对于自然语言处理技术更广泛能力的研究仍有更严格研究的空间，并且需要跨部门合作来了解如何最好地整合这些算法。
