Id+: Enhancing medical knowledge acquisition with machine learning

A new data representation formalism is introduced that extends the original ID3 algorithm and a new algorithm is proposed, ID+, which adopts this representation scheme and provides the capability of modeling dependencies between attributes or attribute values and of handling multiple values per attribute.

Abstract

Learning from patient records may aid medical knowledge acquisition and decision making. Decision tree induction, based on ID3, is a well-known approach of learning from examples. In this article we introduce a new data representation formalism that extends the original ID3 algorithm. We propose a new algorithm, ID+, which adopts this representation scheme. ID+ provides the capability of modeling dependencies between attributes or attribute values and of handling multiple values per attribute. We demonstrate our work via a series of medical knowledge acquisition experiments that are based on a ''real-world'' application of acute abdominal pain in children. In the context of these experiments, we compare ID+ with C4.5, NewId, and a Naive Bayesian classifier. Results demonstrate that the rules acquired via ID+ improve decision tree clinical comprehensibility and complement explanations supported by the Naive Bayesian classifier, while in terms of classification, accuracy decrease is marginal.