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Explore our cutting edge research, world-class patient care, career opportunities and more.
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AI successfully detects psychological stress in childhood cancer survivors
In a proof-of-concept study, I-Chan Huang, PhD, demonstrated the application of natural language processing (NLP) in detecting signs of psychological stress.
Many survivors of childhood cancer experience significant psychological stress following treatment. Instilling a strong sense of purpose can lead to a higher quality of life, but this requires an enhanced ability to detect stress. In a study published in JAMIA Open, I-Chan Huang, PhD, St. Jude Department of Epidemiology and Cancer Control, turned to natural language processing (NLP), which incorporates artificial intelligence to help process and analyze human speech.
In clinical interviews with 51 survivors between 8 and 18 years of age, NLP successfully detected signs of psychological stress compared to the current survey-based methods. This showed the potential for the technology to enhance follow-up care.
“Creating AI-driven systems that use conversational data, automatically generate risk scores and alerts for clinicians, and can provide personalized interventions could revolutionize survivorship care, making it more proactive and tailored to individual needs,” said Huang.