Nguyen M, Jankovic I, Kalesinskas L, Baiocchi M, Chen JH. Machine learning for initial insulin estimation in hospitalized patients.
J Am Med Inform Assoc 2021;
28:2212-2219. [PMID:
34279615 PMCID:
PMC8449602 DOI:
10.1093/jamia/ocab099]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/11/2021] [Revised: 03/12/2021] [Accepted: 05/07/2021] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
OBJECTIVE
The study sought to determine whether machine learning can predict initial inpatient total daily dose (TDD) of insulin from electronic health records more accurately than existing guideline-based dosing recommendations.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
Using electronic health records from a tertiary academic center between 2008 and 2020 of 16,848 inpatients receiving subcutaneous insulin who achieved target blood glucose control of 100-180 mg/dL on a calendar day, we trained an ensemble machine learning algorithm consisting of regularized regression, random forest, and gradient boosted tree models for 2-stage TDD prediction. We evaluated the ability to predict patients requiring more than 6 units TDD and their point-value TDDs to achieve target glucose control.
RESULTS
The method achieves an area under the receiver-operating characteristic curve of 0.85 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.84-0.87) and area under the precision-recall curve of 0.65 (95% CI, 0.64-0.67) for classifying patients who require more than 6 units TDD. For patients requiring more than 6 units TDD, the mean absolute percent error in dose prediction based on standard clinical calculators using patient weight is in the range of 136%-329%, while the regression model based on weight improves to 60% (95% CI, 57%-63%), and the full ensemble model further improves to 51% (95% CI, 48%-54%).
DISCUSSION
Owingto the narrow therapeutic window and wide individual variability, insulin dosing requires adaptive and predictive approaches that can be supported through data-driven analytic tools.
CONCLUSIONS
Machine learning approaches based on readily available electronic medical records can discriminate which inpatients will require more than 6 units TDD and estimate individual doses more accurately than standard guidelines and practices.
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