Background: Predicting in-hospital cardiac arrest (IHCA) is crucial for preventing patient fatalities. However, it remains challenging due to the irregularities in time series data across various features. Previous studies relied on traditional medical scoring systems, but their accuracy was limited as the models were overly simplistic. Recent research using machine learning methods has shown improved results. In our work, we employ deep learning and time series approaches, which are considered the most powerful models for addressing complex problems in recent years. Method/Research Design: The cohort study took place in a hospital in Taiwan from January 2016 to August 2022, involving 252,000 patients in general wards. Input data encompassed basic information, vital signs, Glasgow Coma Scale scores, medication, etc., to predict IHCA occurrences within 24 hours. Given the immediacy of IHCA events, we utilized left alignment to handle time series. Evaluation metrics included the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUROC). Results: We compared three types of settings. The first was based on scoring systems, where the national early warning system (NEWS) achieved an AUROC of 0.756, and the modified early warning score (MEWS) reached 0.653. In the next setting, based on the data summary within a given time interval, the machine learning models XGBoost and deep learning model TabNet achieved AUROCs of 0.863 and 0.839, respectively. This indicates that machine learning outperforms traditional medical methods. The final setting involved time series analysis, where XGBoost and the Gate Recurrent Unit (GRU) network achieved 0.848 and 0.904, respectively, surpassing all previous settings. Conclusion: Our study demonstrates that learning-based methods outperform rule-based methods in predicting IHCA events. Machine learning algorithms offer more possibilities and have the potential to address complex problems effectively. Moreover, considering time series data rather than summarizing within fixed intervals preserves information and leads to better scores. Leveraging the time series deep learning method, GRU shows promising potential in significantly reducing the risk of IHCA events.
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