title: Developing a Fuzzy Expert System to Predict the Risk of Neonatal Death.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  This study aims at developing a fuzzy expert system to predict the possibility of neonatal death.
  
  
  METHODS
  A questionnaire was given to Iranian neonatologists and the more important factors were identified based on their answers. Then, a computing model was designed considering the fuzziness of variables having the highest neonatal mortality risk. The inference engine used was Mamdani's method and the output was the risk of neonatal death given as a percentage. To validate the designed system, neonates' medical records real data at a Tehran hospital were used. MATLAB software was applied to build the model, and user interface was developed by C# programming in Visual Studio platform as bilingual (English and Farsi user interface).
  
  
  RESULTS
  According to the results, the accuracy, sensitivity, and specificity of the model were 90%, 83% and 97%, respectively.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The designed fuzzy expert system for neonatal death prediction showed good accuracy as well as proper specificity, and could be utilized in general hospitals as a clinical decision support tool.
authors.affiliation: Department of Health Information Management, School of Allied Medical Sciences, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Reza
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Safdari
authors.affiliation: Department of Neonatology, Faculty of Medicine, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Maliheh
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kadivar
authors.affiliation: Department of Health Information Management, School of Health Management and Information Science, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Mostafa
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Langarizadeh
authors.affiliation: Department of Health Information Management, School of Allied Medical Sciences, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Ahmadreaza Farzaneh
authors.initials: AF
authors.lastname: Nejad
authors.affiliation: Department of Health Information Management, School of Allied Medical Sciences, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Farzaneh
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Kermani
keywords: Expert systems; clinical; decision support system; fuzzy logic; perinatal death