Detecting borderline infection in an automated monitoring system for healthcare-associated infection using fuzzy logic.

Journal: Artificial intelligence in medicine
Published Date:

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Many electronic infection detection systems employ dichotomous classification methods, classifying patient data as pathological or normal with respect to one or several types of infection. An electronic monitoring and surveillance system for healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) known as Moni-ICU is being operated at the intensive care units (ICUs) of the Vienna General Hospital (VGH) in Austria. Instead of classifying patient data as pathological or normal, Moni-ICU introduces a third borderline class. Patient data classified as borderline with respect to an infection-related clinical concept or HAI surveillance definition signify that the data nearly or partly fulfill the definition for the respective concept or HAI, and are therefore neither fully pathological nor fully normal.

Authors

  • Jeroen S de Bruin
    Section for Medical Expert and Knowledge-Based Systems, Center for Medical Statistics, Informatics, and Intelligent Systems, Medical University of Vienna, Spitalgasse 23, A-1090 Vienna, Austria. Electronic address: jeroen.debruin@meduniwien.ac.at.
  • Klaus-Peter Adlassnig
    Section for Medical Expert and Knowledge-Based Systems, CeMSIIS, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria.
  • Alexander Blacky
    VAMED-KMB Hospital Management and Operation GmbH, Spitalgasse 23, A-1090 Vienna, Austria.
  • Walter Koller
    University Clinic for Hospital Hygiene and Infection Control, Medical University of Vienna and Vienna General Hospital, Waehringer Guertel 18-20, A-1090 Vienna, Austria.