Advances In Infection Surveillance and Clinical Decision Support With Fuzzy Sets and Fuzzy Logic.
By the use of extended intelligent information technology tools for fully automated healthcare-associated infection (HAI) surveillance, clinicians can be informed and alerted about the emergence of infection-related conditions in their patients. Moni--a system for monitoring nosocomial infections in intensive care units for adult and neonatal patients--employs knowledge bases that were written with extensive use of fuzzy sets and fuzzy logic, allowing the inherent un-sharpness of clinical terms and the inherent uncertainty of clinical conclusions to be a part of Moni's output. Thus, linguistic as well as propositional uncertainty became a part of Moni, which can now report retrospectively on HAIs according to traditional crisp HAI surveillance definitions, as well as support clinical bedside work by more complex crisp and fuzzy alerts and reminders. This improved approach can bridge the gap between classical retrospective surveillance of HAIs and ongoing prospective clinical-decision-oriented HAI support.
Clinical Institute of Hospital Hygiene, Medical University of Vienna and Vienna General Hospital, Austria.
Walter
W
Koller
Section for Medical Expert and Knowledge-Based Systems, CeMSIIS, Medical University of Vienna, Austria.
Jeroen S
JS
de Bruin
Section for Medical Expert and Knowledge-Based Systems, CeMSIIS, Medical University of Vienna, Austria.
Andrea
A
Rappelsberger
Section for Medical Expert and Knowledge-Based Systems, CeMSIIS, Medical University of Vienna, Austria.
Klaus-Peter
KP
Adlassnig
D002984:Clinical Laboratory Information Systems / Q000145:classification / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D003428:Cross Infection / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000517:prevention & control; D057225:Data Mining / Q000379:methods; D020000:Decision Support Systems, Clinical / Q000458:organization & administration*; D003936:Diagnosis, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods; D057286:Electronic Health Records / Q000145:classification / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D017143:Fuzzy Logic; D006801:Humans; D007362:Intensive Care Units / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D000069550:Machine Learning; D008498:Medical Record Linkage / Q000379:methods; D009323:Natural Language Processing; D011159:Population Surveillance / Q000379:methods*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity