A scoping review of self-supervised representation learning for clinical decision making using EHR categorical data.
review · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 40517140.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/s41746-025-01692-1 and PMC identifier 12167381.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
The widespread adoption of Electronic Health Records (EHRs) and deep learning, particularly through Self-Supervised Representation Learning (SSRL) for categorical data, has transformed clinical decision-making. This scoping review, following PRISMA-ScR guidelines, examines 46 studies published from January 2019 to April 2024, sourced from PubMed, MEDLINE, Embase, ACM, and Web of Science, focusing on SSRL for unlabeled categorical EHR data. The review systematically assesses research trends in building computationally and data-efficient representations for medical tasks, identifying major trends in model families: Transformer-based (43%), Autoencoder-based (28%), and Graph Neural Network-based (17%) models. The analysis highlights scenarios where healthcare institutions can leverage or develop SSRL technologies. It also addresses current limitations in assessing the impact of these technologies and identifies research opportunities to enhance their influence on clinical practice.