AN AUTOMATED INJURY CODING PROGRAM

WITHIN THE NATIONAL HIGHWAY TRAFFIC SAFETY ADMINISTRATION THERE IS A SIGNIFICANT NEED TO PROVIDE ACCIDENT INVESTIGATORS WITH ADVANCED COMPUTER BASED TOOLS THAT CAN ASSIST IN THE ANALYSIS OF ACCIDENT DATA. IN PARTICULAR, AN "EXPERT SYSTEM" THAT COULD INTERPRET THE VARIOUS SOURCES OF ACCIDENT DATA AND AUTOMATICALLY CODE THESE IN ACCORDANCE WITH VARIOUS INJURY CODING SCHEMES, WOULD BE OF SIGNIFICANT VALUE. SUCH A SYSTEM COULD HELP INCREASE THE PRODUCTIVITY OF ACCIDENT INVESTIGATORS BOTH IN THE INITIAL DATA GATHERINGPHASE AND ALSO IN THE DATA REVIEW PHASE OF THE INVESTIGATION. SUCH A SYSTEM COULD ALSO PROVIDE A FRAMEWORKIN WHICH NEW AND IMPROVED CODES COULD BE DESIGNED AND DEVELOPED. FURTHERMORE, AN EXPERT SYSTEM THAT ENCODES EXTENSIVE SPECIALIZED INJURY CODING KNOWLEDGE MIGHT BE THE BASIS OF A SYSTEM FOR TRAINING NOVICE INVESTIGATORS. THE ADS APPROACH TO THIS PROBLEM IS TO MAKE USE OF ITS EXPERTISEWITH SYSTEMS DEVELOPED FOR TEXT RETRIEVAL AND INTERPRETATION APPLICATIONS IN THE DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE AND THE INTELLIGENCE COMMUNITY AND WHICH EMPLOY A MIX OF EXPERT SYSTEM AND NATURAL LANGUAGE PROCESSING TECHNOLOGIES.