Biomedical subjects

R Bharat Rao

Publications and source records attributed to R Bharat Rao.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2003

Evaluating the C-section rate of different physician practices: using machine learning to model standard practice.

The C-section rate of a population of 22,175 expectant mothers is 16.8%; yet the 17 physician groups that serve this population have vastly different group C-section rates, ranging from 13% to 23%. Our goal is to determine retrospectively if the variations in the observed rates can be attributed to variations in the intrinsic risk of the patient sub-populations (i.e. some groups contain more "high-risk C-section" patients), or differences in physician practice (i.e. some groups do more C-sections). We apply machine learning to this problem by training models to predict standard practice from retrospective data. We then use the models of standard practice to evaluate the C-section rate of each physician practice. Our results indicate that although there is variation in intrinsic risk among the groups, there also is much variation in physician practice.

Artificial Intelligence↗

PubMed2003

Secure de-identification and re-identification.

Today's healthcare organizations have both an ethical and legal responsibility for protecting patient privacy. However, the HIPAA privacy rule allows for the release of de-identified patient data for certain purposes. Secure encryption technology can be used to encrypt patient identified data so only the owners of the original data can re-identify the patient. It further allows consistent de-identification over episodic collection events.

Computer Security↗

PubMed2002

Machine learning for sub-population assessment: evaluating the C-section rate of different physician practices.

We apply machine learning to the problem of subpopulation assessment for Caesarian Section. In subpopulation assessment, we are interested in making predictions not for a single patient, but for groups of patients. Typically, in any large population, different subpopulations will have different "outcome" rates. In our example, the C-section rate of a population of 22,176 expectant mothers is 16.8%; yet, the 17 physician groups that serve this population have vastly different group C-section rates, ranging from 11% to 23%. The ultimate goal of subpopulation assessment is to determine if these variations in the observed rates can be attributed to (a) variations in intrinsic risk of the patient sub-populations (i.e. some groups contain more "high-risk C-section" patients), or (b) differences in physician practice (i.e. some groups do more C-sections). Our results indicate that although there is some variation in intrinsic risk, there is also much variation in physician practice.

Artificial Intelligence↗