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

Levy-Fix, Gal; Gorman, Sharon Lipsky; Sepulveda, Jorge L; Elhadad, Noémie · J Biomed Inform · 2018

other · Level V

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Abstract

Most laboratory results are valid for only a certain time period (laboratory tests shelf-life), after which they are outdated and the test needs to be re-administered.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.

Medical subject headings