Combining Data Imputation and Statistics to Design a Clinical Decision Support System for Post-Operative Pain Monitoring.

The subjectivity and variability of pain conditions, combined with missing data, are constraints on the usefulness and accuracy of computerised clinical decision support systems (CCDSS) for pain management. In this paper, a CCDSS based on data imputation combined with statistics models is presented. This system was tested using clinical data collected during a six-week randomised controlled trial involving thirty-two volunteers recruited from an ambulatory surgery department. The proposed system revealed it ability to cope with missing data and detect either stability or changes in the self-reporting of pain, and therefore, to support health care professionals on clinical decisions and practices for pain management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]