Automated Compliance Analysis on Clinical Notes to Improve Cancer Lifestyle Management

Maintaining a healthy lifestyle is essential for cancer patients, and certain lifestyle factors can help manage specific types of cancer. However, research has shown that lifestyle information is not effectively communicated during clinical visits, and patients may not receive appropriate guidance to manage their lifestyles during cancer treatment. This paper will develop an automatic compliance analysis method and examine the present state of lifestyle information documented in clinical notes, discover for which type of cancer patients are receiving the most appropriate lifestyle recommendations during clinical visits, and assess the extent of compliance between the lifestyle recommendations and published standard guidelines. Results indicate that the average frequency of selected lifestyle keywords appeared 4 times during each clinical visit, and only 3% of medical notes pertained to patients’ lifestyle. Diet and weight-related keywords were the most frequently mentioned lifestyle factors, but the compliance was low for major types of cancer. The proposed method could have significant implications for improving cancer patients’ lifestyle management by facilitating timely and accurate assessment of lifestyle recommendations from clinicians.