How text analytics can be the wind in the sails of healthcare providers

From time immemorial man has striven to develop tools and technologies that could save labor and multiply effort. Like the wheel in ancient times. The steam engine in recent times. And computers and digital applications in the modern world. That is a trait that has distinguished humans from all other animals and continues to.
We have witnessed a remarkable graph of expansion of computational ability in just a few decades, and there are no signs of it slowing down. If anything, the pace is only accelerating.
oWorkers provides 24×7 support to its clients, much like the computers and digital technologies we are all now accustomed to.

Computers and structured information

A computer, at the end of the day, is a device that is built and trained by humans to act and respond to understand stimuli (inputs) and respond to them in defined ways. This is often referred to as programming, or software programming.
A computer is built to understand a program, or an input, that is provided to it, in a language it can understand. Each keystroke on the computer is assigned a specific meaning. Each combination and sequence of keystrokes will possess and convey specific meanings. Once it can understand and interpret it, it can carry out the tasks that the program requires it to. On many occasions, this, again, requires it to understand and interpret information that is provided to it, and make decisions based on its understanding of the information.
What are the limitations of this approach?
The primary limitation being faced is that the computer requires structure to function. The program needs to be written in a manner that it can understand. The information it is asked to understand should be presented in a defined format, such as in rows and columns, with each standing for only a pre-defined variable and nothing else.
As a provider that has chosen to specialize in the area of professinonal BPO services, oWorkers continues to excel. It is now recognized as one of the top three providers in the world in its chosen space of work.

Challenges with unstructured information

But, is that how most information in the environment occurs?
Definitely no.
Most information occurring in our environment is unstructured.
A doctor’s handwritten prescription is unstructured.
A phone call between any two people is unstructured.
An essay or an article is unstructured. Each person will write in his/her own unique style.
So what?
The issue with unstructured information is that it cannot become an input for a computer.
So what?
The challenge this creates is that it limits the computational ability of computers. They are not in a position to operate on the vast amount of unstructured information that exists in the world and often hold clues unlocking which can release significant value.
As a preferred employer, oWokers accesses deep pools of talent in all its delivery centers. In fact, they don’t need to spend much on advertising to attract talent; the reputation they have built up creates a strong pull effect. They have the ability to choose the best talent for all their client projects, out of the unending queues of job seekers that come to their doorstep, physically or virtually.

Artificial Intelligence (AI)

While there are many areas that are advancing in parallel, one of the fields that have captured popular imagination is that of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the related field of Machine Learning (ML) through which software models are trained to become intelligent AI engines.
Through ML, we seek to create AI models that are equipped to operate on unstructured information, freeing computers from the confined world of structured information and harnessing information that could, hitherto, not be understood.
Why is that important?
It is important because companies are looking to harness information to create a competitive advantage for themselves so that they can create a dominant position for themselves in the future world by unlocking information that could not be accessed earlier.
But, if it is so difficult to get computers to understand this information, why don’t companies use human beings for it?
That, of course, is a possibility. However, humans require high maintenance and have a limited capacity. That is the whole essence of automation, is it not? Computers may not have as smart a brain as the average human but can process large volumes of data. Hence, equipping machines to handle unstructured information is the goal, and not creating a large number of human beings to do the same.
A secure operating environment is a prerequisite for complex technology solutions to operate in. oWorkers provides the best with its super secure facilities & protocols that guarantee the security of data, armed with ISO certifications (27001:2013 & 9001:2015). It is also GDPR compliant.

Textual Analytics

Text, or unstructured text, is one of the formats in which unstructured information exists. In fact, all communication is linked with textual information in one way or another. Human communication relies upon languages, which manifest themselves either as an oral communication or as written communication, which is textual.
A doctor’s handwritten prescription is text.
An essay or an article is text.
To prise out the secrets that lie hidden within unstructured text, we rely upon an evolving discipline that is known as text analytics, or text mining, that seeks to analyze and uncover information hidden in unstructured text.
Let us remember that structured information has been handled. There are many ways in which computers can read and understand structured information, depending on the user, the company, the business, the location, the situation, and so many other factors. Of course, the effort for extracting more and more will be ongoing, but the basic challenge of submitting it to be understood by machines has been overcome.
The same needs to be done for unstructured information.
With the ability to hire at short notice, oWorkers not only caters to unforeseen volume spikes of clients but is also able to provide manpower cover in situations where human assistance is required by the technology. It can hire an additional hundred resources within 48 hours.

Technologies being harnessed

A number of technologies need to come together to enable this process to work. The main ones are:

Natural Language Processing (NLP)

NLP is used to extract information out of unstructured text and create meaningful structures from it. Once structured, it can be put to the same use as structured data, viz. getting deeper insights into the subject with which that text deals or pertains to.

Optical Character Recognition (OCR)

When one only has a hardcopy document available, or one that is handwritten, there is an additional step of converting it to a format so that its characters can be recognized nu a computer. OCR technologies are useful in doing this.

Deep Neural Networks (DNN)

OCR technologies use DNN techniques to extract information. The extracted information is then fed into the pipeline feeding information to NLP for drawing meaning.

Artificial Intelligence (AI)

AI is often the goal that drives the deployment of the various technologies. Once created, an AI model can create significant efficiency, synergies, and value.
With solid relationships developed with technology companies over a period of many years, oWorkers today is in a position where it can leverage the latest developments in technology for delivering on client projects, something very few providers will be able to lay claim to.

How is it done?

As a science, or discipline, text analytics has evolved certain practices and methodologies from the time the information is ingested into the system and the eventual output is released. Though it could vary based on the user’s preferences as well as the application, detailed below is the most commonly followed sequence:

1. Identification of the language needs to be done because that is integral to drawing inferences. Some languages could also have many versions and dialects.
2. Breaking the entire text down into small packets that, individually, carry meaning. These are further aligned with punctuation that is present to further enrich the packets.
3. Alignment of the various packets is done, followed by ‘light parsing,’ or deconstructing each sentence into the parts that make it up.
4. This is followed by parsing of the syntax, which is usually the step that consumes the most computing power. It also ends up revealing the sentence’s real structure behind the facade.
5. The final step is usually termed ‘sentence chaining.’ At this stage, the unstructured textual information is ready to be analyzed.

This is only a high-level view and is not intended to be read and applied. It is a deep, scientific process that needs to be studied and practiced before you are able to apply it.
There are other complexities that emerge from time to time that we have not even covered, such as identification of intent and tone, especially where the original content is oral that has been converted to text. Those add further layers of complexity to the unstructured information.
Understanding language is key to any form of communication, by humans or by machines. oWorkers, with its ability to serve clients in over 20 languages, has few peers. Offering multilingual services is an integral part of being oWorkers, a multicultural and multinational organization.

Application of text analytics in healthcare

One of the fastest growing areas of text analytics is its application in the domain of healthcare, with its growing emphasis on extracting valuable data from the massive amounts of data the industry collects and retains.
When you are armed with more, and better, data, it is to be expected that it will lead to better outcomes. With the deeper insights that can be gleaned, better correlations of causes with diseases as well as the effectiveness of cures will emerge, leading to an improvement in care. It can also reduce the burden on the healthcare ecosystem by preventing diseases and reducing hospital admissions.
Sharper profiling of patients leads to a personalization of the treatment, again, with a view to achieving better outcomes.
Deeper insights thrown up through information revealed by unstructured data can also help in combating the misuse of medication, prescriptions, referrals, and insurance claims. The result, eventually, is that the people who most need the care receive it at a reasonable cost
oWorkers works with clients from various industries around the world, including technology companies and unicorn marketplaces, and is led by a capable team of managers who have several decades of hands-on industry experience.

In conclusion

The healthcare industry is sitting on a huge cache of information, that it has collected over many years, with the objective of bringing about improvement in outcomes for patients. Much of this information, unfortunately, is unstructured, rendering itself unfit for computation and extracting insights.
With recent advancements in AI as well as tools for analysis of textual information, the industry is hopeful of unlocking many secrets that are currently hidden in this unstructured data. These could lead to improving medical outcomes, lowering the burden on the healthcare system, and identifying and eliminating cases of fraud and cheating that increase costs for everyone else.
It will have to handle concerns regarding privacy and data security as it moves towards an end-to-end digitization model where every bit of information has a value that can be harnessed. While we may yet be far from the day of end-to-end digitization, each step taken is a step in the right direction.
oWorkers is known to offer beneficial pricing, among the best in the industry. Clients make claims of savings up to 80% of their pre-outsourcing costs. They pay social and local taxes in all the locations they operate from, and work with employed staff, not freelancers and contractors like some of their competitors.
They have successfully opened the doors of the digital economy to many youngsters from the underprivileged backgrounds that many of their employees come from. Your work will enable them to provide the same opportunity to a few more deserving people.