Creating Clinical Fuzzy Automata with Fuzzy Arden Syntax.

Journal: AMIA ... Annual Symposium proceedings. AMIA Symposium
Published Date:

Abstract

Formal constructs for fuzzy sets and fuzzy logic are incorporated into Arden Syntax version 2.9 (Fuzzy Arden Syntax). With fuzzy sets, the relationships between measured or observed data and linguistic terms are expressed as degrees of compatibility that model the unsharpness of the boundaries of linguistic terms. Propositional uncertainty due to incomplete knowledge of relationships between clinical linguistic concepts is modeled with fuzzy logic. Fuzzy Arden Syntax also supports the construction of fuzzy state monitors. The latter are defined as monitors that employ fuzzy automata to observe gradual transitions between different stages of disease. As a use case, we re-implemented FuzzyARDS, a previously published clinical monitoring system for patients suffering from acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). Using the re-implementation as an example, we show how key concepts of fuzzy automata, i.e., fuzzy states and parallel fuzzy state transitions, can be implemented in Fuzzy Arden Syntax. The results showed that fuzzy state monitors can be implemented in a straightforward manner.

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.
  • Heinz Steltzer
    Trauma Hospital Vienna South, Vienna, Austria.
  • Andrea Rappelsberger
    Section for Medical Expert and Knowledge-Based Systems, CeMSIIS, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria.
  • Klaus-Peter Adlassnig
    Section for Medical Expert and Knowledge-Based Systems, CeMSIIS, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria.