Assessment of Follow-Up for Pulmonary Nodules from Radiology Reports with Natural Language Processing

Radiology reports are an essential communication method for ensuring smooth workflow in healthcare. However, many of these reports are described in free text, and findings documented by radiologists may not be adequately addressed. In this study, focusing on pulmonary nodules, we evaluated whether cases in which radiologists described follow-up as recommended were receiving appropriate treatment. Reports recommending follow-up for pulmonary nodules were automatically extracted using natural language processing. In our evaluation, out of 10,507 reports, 1,501 cases (14.3%) were classified as "reports recommending follow-up for pulmonary nodules." Among these, 958 cases underwent additional imaging tests within 400 days. From the remaining 543 cases, we randomly sampled 42 cases and conducted chart reviews by clinicians to confirm patient care status. Our assessment found that follow-up was not documented in 17 of the 42 cases (40.5%), indicating a high likelihood that appropriate care was not provided.