Applications of data mining in healthcare area: A survey

Abstract

Abstract Data mining is the modern way of discovering knowledge among databases that leads to statistical analysis, pattern recognition, and information prediction. Today, one of the most important applications of data mining is in the healthcare field which leads to many advances in this area in order to increase the effectiveness of treatments, reduce the risks, decrease the costs, better patient relationships, early disease diagnosis, and etc. This article attempts to provide a comprehensive overview with a new classification of services that data mining has created or facilitated in the healthcare field. It includes disease diagnosis, early detection of diseases, managing pandemic diseases, dimension reduction, health monitoring, treatment effectiveness, system biology, management of hospital resources, hospital ranking, customer relationship management, public health policy planning, fraud and abuse detection, and control data overload. Furthermore, the strengths and weaknesses of data mining in the healthcare field are discussed and future directions in this area are mentioned. Finally, it can be concluded that although data mining has abundant applications in the healthcare area, especially in the diagnosis and prediction of diseases and healthcare business, medical data mining is still young and needs more attention.