Self–Training With Quantile Errors for Multivariate Missing Data Imputation for Regression Problems in Electronic Medical Records: Algorithm Development Study
Bibliographic record
Abstract
BACKGROUND: When using machine learning in the real world, the missing value problem is the first problem encountered. Methods to impute this missing value include statistical methods such as mean, expectation-maximization, and multiple imputations by chained equations (MICE) as well as machine learning methods such as multilayer perceptron, k-nearest neighbor, and decision tree. OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to impute numeric medical data such as physical data and laboratory data. We aimed to effectively impute data using a progressive method called self-training in the medical field where training data are scarce. METHODS: In this paper, we propose a self-training method that gradually increases the available data. Models trained with complete data predict the missing values in incomplete data. Among the incomplete data, the data in which the missing value is validly predicted are incorporated into the complete data. Using the predicted value as the actual value is called pseudolabeling. This process is repeated until the condition is satisfied. The most important part of this process is how to evaluate the accuracy of pseudolabels. They can be evaluated by observing the effect of the pseudolabeled data on the performance of the model. RESULTS: In self-training using random forest (RF), mean squared error was up to 12% lower than pure RF, and the Pearson correlation coefficient was 0.1% higher. This difference was confirmed statistically. In the Friedman test performed on MICE and RF, self-training showed a P value between .003 and .02. A Wilcoxon signed-rank test performed on the mean imputation showed the lowest possible P value, 3.05e-5, in all situations. CONCLUSIONS: Self-training showed significant results in comparing the predicted values and actual values, but it needs to be verified in an actual machine learning system. And self-training has the potential to improve performance according to the pseudolabel evaluation method, which will be the main subject of our future research.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.017 | 0.041 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.001 | 0.002 |
| Open science | 0.002 | 0.002 |
| Research integrity | 0.001 | 0.002 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.002 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".