Investigating clinical outcomes associated with remote mental healthcare using natural language processing

Remote technologies such as phone, video calls, text messages and e-mail allow patients and clinicians to communicate with each other when it is not possible to meet in-person. During the COVID-19 pandemic, mental health services often used remote technology to maintain clinical contact. However, the rise in remote consultation was largely unplanned and its longer-term potential has yet to be systematically evaluated. Clinicians routinely document the care that they provide to patients in electronic health records (EHRs). Most of the information is stored as free text notes which may include details on the symptoms, diagnosis, and the treatment plan. Natural language processing (NLP) can be used to automatically extract clinical information from free text EHR documents. I aim to analyse EHR data using NLP to assess the impact of remote care technology on access to care and its benefit to patients.