Neuroscience
Grzegorz Kondrak of the University of Alberta has developed a way to use computational linguistics data in an AI system that spots drug names that are too much alike.
The FDA is using his system to evaluate new drug names by comparing them to existing ones. By ensuring more unique drug names medical errors due to confusing similar-sounding and similar-looking names can be reduced. In the USA that's as many as 162,500 deaths a year that could be prevented.
Kondrak originally developed the software to find similarities in words for language history comparisons, and says it was criticized as having no practical application at the time. A recent article in Artificial Intelligence in Medicine proves otherwise.
A noble scientist, he adds that he makes his research openly available.
"If anyone asks for it, I just give it to them," Kondrak said. "I was a funded researcher, and I look at it as my responsibility to share what I've learned and what I've done."
"When you do basic research sometimes you don't know how it might become of use, but if this software helps to reduce even just 10 per cent of prescription errors in the U.S. that translates into helping a lot of people, and it's very satisfying to contribute to that."
- Does Psychology Have Its Own Vocabulary?
If you were to pick up the flagship journal from a discipline that is foreign to you and flip to an article at random, how much do you think you would understand? Put a different way: how much of the vocabulary employed in that article might you misinterpret?...
- Be Creative: Don't Even Think About It
Not thinking about a problem for a while doesn’t just give you a fresh perspective when you come back to it. It also allows your more creative unconscious to get to work as it “…ventures out to the dark and dusty nooks and crannies of the mind”....
- Why Are The Letters "z" And "x" So Popular In Drug Names?
Freelance medical and science writer Rob Stepney noticed the rapid growth of "x" and "z"-named products included in the British National Formulary (BNF). So for the Christmas 2010 issue of BMJ (Stepney, 2010), he investigated this phenomenon: Of 1436...
- Aphasia: Caregiver Account
Available for streaming and as a podcast, from WNYC: "Diane Ackerman's One Hundred Names for Love" Listen 22 April 2011 WNYC Leonard Lopate Show "Diane Ackerman talks about her husband, Paul West’s, stroke and long recovery. He was afflicted with...
- Meg Lab Manager Position With The Department Of Linguistics
MEG Laboratory Manager Department of Linguistics University of Maryland Responsibilities: The Lab Manager will play a leading role in the operation of the MEG (Magnetoencephalography) facility managed by the Department of Linguistics but serving...
Neuroscience
Computational linguistics saving lives
Grzegorz Kondrak of the University of Alberta has developed a way to use computational linguistics data in an AI system that spots drug names that are too much alike.
The FDA is using his system to evaluate new drug names by comparing them to existing ones. By ensuring more unique drug names medical errors due to confusing similar-sounding and similar-looking names can be reduced. In the USA that's as many as 162,500 deaths a year that could be prevented.
Kondrak originally developed the software to find similarities in words for language history comparisons, and says it was criticized as having no practical application at the time. A recent article in Artificial Intelligence in Medicine proves otherwise.
A noble scientist, he adds that he makes his research openly available.
"If anyone asks for it, I just give it to them," Kondrak said. "I was a funded researcher, and I look at it as my responsibility to share what I've learned and what I've done."
"When you do basic research sometimes you don't know how it might become of use, but if this software helps to reduce even just 10 per cent of prescription errors in the U.S. that translates into helping a lot of people, and it's very satisfying to contribute to that."
- Does Psychology Have Its Own Vocabulary?
If you were to pick up the flagship journal from a discipline that is foreign to you and flip to an article at random, how much do you think you would understand? Put a different way: how much of the vocabulary employed in that article might you misinterpret?...
- Be Creative: Don't Even Think About It
Not thinking about a problem for a while doesn’t just give you a fresh perspective when you come back to it. It also allows your more creative unconscious to get to work as it “…ventures out to the dark and dusty nooks and crannies of the mind”....
- Why Are The Letters "z" And "x" So Popular In Drug Names?
Freelance medical and science writer Rob Stepney noticed the rapid growth of "x" and "z"-named products included in the British National Formulary (BNF). So for the Christmas 2010 issue of BMJ (Stepney, 2010), he investigated this phenomenon: Of 1436...
- Aphasia: Caregiver Account
Available for streaming and as a podcast, from WNYC: "Diane Ackerman's One Hundred Names for Love" Listen 22 April 2011 WNYC Leonard Lopate Show "Diane Ackerman talks about her husband, Paul West’s, stroke and long recovery. He was afflicted with...
- Meg Lab Manager Position With The Department Of Linguistics
MEG Laboratory Manager Department of Linguistics University of Maryland Responsibilities: The Lab Manager will play a leading role in the operation of the MEG (Magnetoencephalography) facility managed by the Department of Linguistics but serving...