When to re-order laboratory tests? Learning laboratory test shelf-life

Publication date: Available online 20 July 2018Source: Journal of Biomedical InformaticsAuthor(s): Gal Levy-Fix, Sharon Lipsky Gorman, Jorge L. Sepulveda, Noémie ElhadadAbstractMost laboratory results are valid for only a certain time period (laboratory tests shelf-life), after which they are outdated and the test needs to be re-administered. Currently, laboratory test shelf-lives are not centrally available anywhere but the implicit knowledge of doctors. In this work we propose an automated method to learn laboratory test-specific shelf-life by identifying prevalent laboratory test order patterns in electronic health records. The resulting shelf-lives performed well in the evaluation of internal validity, clinical interpretability, and external validity.Graphical abstract
Source: Journal of Biomedical Informatics - Category: Information Technology Source Type: research