Uniqueness of medical data mining

  • Authors:

  • Krzysztof J. Cios;G. William Moore

  • Affiliations:

  • Department of Computer Science and Engineering, University of Colorado at Denver, Campus Box 109, 1200 Larimer Street, Denver, CO 80217-3364, USA and University of Colorado at Boulder, Boulder, CO ...;Baltimore Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Baltimore, MD, USA and University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA and The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, ...

  • Venue:
  • Artificial Intelligence in Medicine
  • Year:
  • 2002

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Abstract

This article addresses the special features of data mining with medical data. Researchers in other fields may not be aware of the particular constraints and difficulties of the privacy-sensitive, heterogeneous, but voluminous data of medicine. Ethical and legal aspects of medical data mining are discussed, including data ownership, fear of lawsuits, expected benefits, and special administrative issues. The mathematical understanding of estimation and hypothesis formation in medical data may be fundamentally different than those from other data collection activities. Medicine is primarily directed at patient-care activity, and only secondarily as a research resource; almost the only justification for collecting medical data is to benefit the individual patient. Finally, medical data have a special status based upon their applicability to all people; their urgency (including life-or-death); and a moral obligation to be used for beneficial purposes.