💊📝 Dose instructions parser 💊📝

Warning

This project is a 🚧 work in progress 🚧, please use the code with caution. Please contact [email protected] with any queries.

Note

📓 Documentation can be found at https://public-health-scotland.github.io/dose_instruction_parser/

📦 dose_instruction_parser package is available on PyPI at https://pypi.org/project/dose-instruction-parser/

This repository contains code for parsing dose instructions. These are short pieces of free text written on prescriptions to tell patients how to use their medication. An example prescription is shown to the below, with the dose instruction "125mg three times daily" highlighted.

The code is written primarily in Python and consists of two main phases:

1. Named entity recognition (NER) using a model trained via the spacy package to identify phrases linked to key information, e.g.

2. Extract structured output from the recognised entities using a series of rules, e.g.

   ...
   form="mg"
   dosageMin=125.0
   dosageMax=125.0
   frequencyMin=3.0
   frequencyMax=3.0
   frequencyType='Day'
   ...

Code to create the model (1.) can be found in the model folder. Code to parse dose instructions given a model (2.) can be found in the dose_instruction_parser folder.

When the code is installed, dose instructions can be parsed from the command line in the following way (for more information see the documentation):

$ parse_dose_instructions -di "125mg three times daily" -mod "en_edris9"

Logging to command line. Use the --logfile argument to set a log file instead.
2024-05-28 07:45:49,803 Checking input and output files
2024-05-28 07:45:49,803 Setting up parser
2024-05-28 07:46:34,205 Parsing single dose instruction

StructuredDI(inputID=None, text='125mg three times daily', form='mg', dosageMin=125.0, dosageMax=125.0, frequencyMin=3.0, frequencyMax=3.0, frequencyType='Day', durationMin=None, durationMax=None, durationType=None, asRequired=False, asDirected=False)

Note

Code in the model folder was used to generate a model for 1. called edris9. This is based on the med7 model, further trained using examples specific to the prescribing information system data held by Public Health Scotland. Due to information governance, the edris9 model is not public. Please contact [email protected] if you wish to use the model.

Important

The code for the dose_instruction_parser package is based on the parsigs package. We recommend you have a look at this package if you are not using NHS prescribing data and/or are interested in different structural output.

Contents

1. 📁 Folder structure
2. 💿 Installation and Setup
3. 🔍 Further information

📁 Folder structure

📦dose_instructions_parser
 ┣ 📂.github
 ┃ ┣ 📂workflows                
 ┣ 📂coverage                  # code coverage information 
 ┣ 📂doc                       # documentation
 ┃ ┣ 📂examples                # -- example scripts
 ┃ ┗ 📂sphinx                  # -- source behind github pages docs
 ┃ ┃ ┣ 📂source
 ┃ ┃ ┃ ┣ 📂doc_pages
 ┃ ┃ ┃ ┣ 📂modules
 ┃ ┃ ┃ ┃ ┗ 📂dose_instruction_parser
 ┃ ┃ ┃ ┣ 📂_static
 ┣ 📂dose_instruction_parser   # package for parsing dose instructions
 ┃ ┣ 📂dose_instruction_parser
 ┃ ┃ ┣ 📂data
 ┃ ┃ ┣ 📂tests
 ┣ 📂model                     # code for creating NER model
 ┃ ┣ 📂config                  # -- model configuration 
 ┃ ┣ 📂data                    # -- processed .spacy data created here
 ┃ ┣ 📂preprocess              # -- code for pre-processing training     
 ┃ ┃ ┣ 📂processed             # ---- intermediate processing carried out here
 ┃ ┃ ┣ 📂tagged                # ---- put tagged .json training data here
 ┗ ┗ 📂setup                   # -- script for setting up conda for model development

💿 Installation and setup

There are several different ways to set up the project. Please choose the one which is right for you.

📈 I am a PHS analyst

If you are a PHS analyst and just want to parse dose instructions you can do this directly using R. You will need to follow the internal dose instructions SOP, which you can obtain from colleagues in eDRIS.

If you are an analyst wishing to develop the model or code, see below.

💊 I just want to parse dose instructions

Important

This requires a model (e.g. edris9) to be installed

conda create -n di                                  # setup new conda env
conda activate di                                   # activate
python -m pip install dose_instruction_parser       # install dose_instruction_parser from PyPI
parse_dose_instructions -h                          # get help on parsing dose instructions

⏳ I want to develop a model

1. Clone this repository

2. Add a file called called secrets.env in the top level of the cloned repository with the following contents:

   export DI_FILEPATH="</path/to/model/folder>"

   This sets the environment variable DI_FILEPATH where the code will read/write models. If you are working within Public Health Scotland please contact [email protected] to receive the filepath.

3. Run

   cd model/setup/
   source ./set_up_conda.sh

   to set up the conda environment specifically for model development (default name model)

4. Activate environment with e.g.

   conda activate model

📦 I want to develop the dose_instruction_parser package

1. Clone this repository

2. Add a file called called secrets.env in the top level of the cloned repository with the following contents:

   export DI_FILEPATH="</path/to/model/folder>"

   This sets the environment variable DI_FILEPATH where the code will read/write models. If you are working within Public Health Scotland please contact [email protected] to receive the filepath.

3. Create new conda environment and activate:

   conda create -n di-dev
   conda activate di-dev

4. Install package in editable mode so that when you change the code the package updates accordingly:

   python -m pip install --editable dose_instruction_parser[dev]

Important

Make sure you run this from the top directory of the repository

5. Get developing!

🔍 Further information

• 📓 Check out the documentation at https://public-health-scotland.github.io/dose_instruction_parser/ for more information on how to use and develop the code
• 💊 See the README in the dose_instruction_parser folder for information on the dose_instruction_parser package
• 🔧 See the README in the doc/sphinx folder for information on adding to the documentation
• 👷 See the README in the .github/workflows folder for information on GitHub workflows for this repository
• 📧 Contact [email protected] with any queries