Measuring Boards Using Quantitative Tools from Natural Language Processing

Natural language processing (NLP) tools provide quantitative methods to analyze board minutes and better understand and measure the work of the board. Techniques such as riverbed graphs and sentiment analysis provide objective, measurable information about key areas (finance, quality, compliance) that boards focus their attention on. By comparing the key focus areas between different hospitals, this paper demonstrates that NLP tools can provide a robust and reproducible way in which boards can measure their progress toward the betterment of their goals, objectives and responsibilities for both peer-to-peer and internal comparisons.