MedSimples: An Automated Simplification Tool for Promoting Health Literacy in Brazil
(2020) Proceedings of the Workshop on Digital Humanities and Natural Language Processing (DHandNLP 2020) — 76-78, published
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- Authors
Paraguassu, Liana 
- Abstract
- Functional illiteracy rates in Brazil are critical. According to a recent study (2018) conducted by the Paulo Montenegro Institute, 3 out of 10 Brazilians are considered functional illiterates. Also according to INAF 4 , only 12% are truly proficcient readers. On the other hand, with the significant increase of Internet access in Brazil in the past years, information is available to a much larger number of people. According to the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), in 2017, 67,00% of the Brazilian population had access to the Internet. Although a search on the Internet by a layperson cannot replace going to the doctor, the growing number of Internet users who rely on it as a source of information is a reality that cannot be overlooked. Therefore, it is important that the source be reliable, but also that the information provided on these sources be linguistically accessible and understandable by people with low levels of literacy. In this scenario, our research problem is this: How can we render health-related information available on the Web in a linguistically accessible way to people with limited education and low literacy skills? Our project combined Natural Language Processing, Corpus Linguistics and Terminology Studies to develop MedSimples, an online tool that automatically identifies complex phrases in health-related texts presented by the user and offers suggestions of simplification. MedSimples is an example of how research on medical language, associated with NLP, can enrich the current scenario of Digital Humanities in its broadest scope. The prototypical user for the tool is the Health or Communication professional interested in producing accessible texts graduated according to the needs of their audience. However, it can also be used by anyone who is interested in getting simplified health-related information for themselves. Our Text Simplification approach is focused on lexical and terminological levels, and the goal is to reduce complexity while preserving meaning. Lexical simplification can have
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Citations
Paraguassu, L., Zilio, L., Leiva Hercules, L., & Bocorny Finatto, M. (2020). MedSimples: An Automated Simplification Tool for Promoting Health Literacy in Brazil. In Maria José Finatto, Renata Vieira, Senja Pollak, Saturnino Luz (ed.), Proceedings of the Workshop on Digital Humanities and Natural Language Processing (DHandNLP 2020) (pp. 76-78). CEUR Workshop Proceedings. https://hdl.handle.net/2078.5/277009