Generating Artificial Patients With Reliable Clinical Characteristics Using a Geometry-Based Variational Autoencoder: Proof-of-Concept Feasibility Study
BackgroundArtificial patient technology could transform health care by accelerating diagnosis, treatment, and mapping clinical pathways. Deep learning methods for generating artificial data in health care include data augmentation by variational autoencoders (VAE) technology....
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| Format: | Article |
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JMIR Publications
2025-04-01
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| Series: | Journal of Medical Internet Research |
| Online Access: | https://www.jmir.org/2025/1/e63130 |
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| author | Fabrice Ferré Stéphanie Allassonnière Clément Chadebec Vincent Minville |
| author_facet | Fabrice Ferré Stéphanie Allassonnière Clément Chadebec Vincent Minville |
| author_sort | Fabrice Ferré |
| collection | DOAJ |
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BackgroundArtificial patient technology could transform health care by accelerating diagnosis, treatment, and mapping clinical pathways. Deep learning methods for generating artificial data in health care include data augmentation by variational autoencoders (VAE) technology.
ObjectiveWe aimed to test the feasibility of generating artificial patients with reliable clinical characteristics by using a geometry-based VAE applied, for the first time, on high-dimension, low-sample-size tabular data.
MethodsClinical tabular data were extracted from 521 real patients of the “MAX” digital conversational agent (BOTdesign) created for preparing patients for anesthesia. A 3-stage methodological approach was implemented to generate up to 10,000 artificial patients: training the model and generating artificial data, assessing the consistency and confidentiality of artificial data, and validating the plausibility of the newly created artificial patients.
ResultsWe demonstrated the feasibility of applying the VAE technique to tabular data to generate large artificial patient cohorts with high consistency (fidelity scores>94%). Moreover, artificial patients could not be matched with real patients (filter similarity scores>99%, κ coefficients of agreement<0.2), thus guaranteeing the essential ethical concern of confidentiality.
ConclusionsThis proof-of-concept study has demonstrated our ability to augment real tabular data to generate artificial patients. These promising results make it possible to envisage in silico trials carried out on large cohorts of artificial patients, thereby overcoming the pitfalls usually encountered in in vivo trials. Further studies integrating longitudinal dynamics are needed to map patient trajectories. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-4ff1a2ab47304516902586fa41b5ed5d |
| institution | OA Journals |
| issn | 1438-8871 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-04-01 |
| publisher | JMIR Publications |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Journal of Medical Internet Research |
| spelling | doaj-art-4ff1a2ab47304516902586fa41b5ed5d2025-08-20T02:27:39ZengJMIR PublicationsJournal of Medical Internet Research1438-88712025-04-0127e6313010.2196/63130Generating Artificial Patients With Reliable Clinical Characteristics Using a Geometry-Based Variational Autoencoder: Proof-of-Concept Feasibility StudyFabrice Ferréhttps://orcid.org/0000-0001-6648-7454Stéphanie Allassonnièrehttps://orcid.org/0000-0002-5692-4945Clément Chadebechttps://orcid.org/0000-0003-3890-1392Vincent Minvillehttps://orcid.org/0000-0003-0516-4939 BackgroundArtificial patient technology could transform health care by accelerating diagnosis, treatment, and mapping clinical pathways. Deep learning methods for generating artificial data in health care include data augmentation by variational autoencoders (VAE) technology. ObjectiveWe aimed to test the feasibility of generating artificial patients with reliable clinical characteristics by using a geometry-based VAE applied, for the first time, on high-dimension, low-sample-size tabular data. MethodsClinical tabular data were extracted from 521 real patients of the “MAX” digital conversational agent (BOTdesign) created for preparing patients for anesthesia. A 3-stage methodological approach was implemented to generate up to 10,000 artificial patients: training the model and generating artificial data, assessing the consistency and confidentiality of artificial data, and validating the plausibility of the newly created artificial patients. ResultsWe demonstrated the feasibility of applying the VAE technique to tabular data to generate large artificial patient cohorts with high consistency (fidelity scores>94%). Moreover, artificial patients could not be matched with real patients (filter similarity scores>99%, κ coefficients of agreement<0.2), thus guaranteeing the essential ethical concern of confidentiality. ConclusionsThis proof-of-concept study has demonstrated our ability to augment real tabular data to generate artificial patients. These promising results make it possible to envisage in silico trials carried out on large cohorts of artificial patients, thereby overcoming the pitfalls usually encountered in in vivo trials. Further studies integrating longitudinal dynamics are needed to map patient trajectories.https://www.jmir.org/2025/1/e63130 |
| spellingShingle | Fabrice Ferré Stéphanie Allassonnière Clément Chadebec Vincent Minville Generating Artificial Patients With Reliable Clinical Characteristics Using a Geometry-Based Variational Autoencoder: Proof-of-Concept Feasibility Study Journal of Medical Internet Research |
| title | Generating Artificial Patients With Reliable Clinical Characteristics Using a Geometry-Based Variational Autoencoder: Proof-of-Concept Feasibility Study |
| title_full | Generating Artificial Patients With Reliable Clinical Characteristics Using a Geometry-Based Variational Autoencoder: Proof-of-Concept Feasibility Study |
| title_fullStr | Generating Artificial Patients With Reliable Clinical Characteristics Using a Geometry-Based Variational Autoencoder: Proof-of-Concept Feasibility Study |
| title_full_unstemmed | Generating Artificial Patients With Reliable Clinical Characteristics Using a Geometry-Based Variational Autoencoder: Proof-of-Concept Feasibility Study |
| title_short | Generating Artificial Patients With Reliable Clinical Characteristics Using a Geometry-Based Variational Autoencoder: Proof-of-Concept Feasibility Study |
| title_sort | generating artificial patients with reliable clinical characteristics using a geometry based variational autoencoder proof of concept feasibility study |
| url | https://www.jmir.org/2025/1/e63130 |
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