Categorize Readmitted Patients in Intensive Medicine by Means of Clustering Data Mining

Intensive Medicine

In the field of Medicine there is a particular area having as main goal to diagnose and treat patients with serious illnesses and restore them to their previous health condition (Silva et al., 2008), namely Intensive Medicine (IM). This type of patients is usually admitted to intensive care units (ICU). In ICU, the patients can maintain their physiological functions through various life-support devices. In these units, the patients are normally mechanical ventilated and the vital functions are continuously monitored as well as the status of each of the organic systems: neurological, respiratory, hepatic, hematological, cardiovascular and renal. In order to ensure the life and patient condition these functions can be supported through therapeutic plans, clinical procedures or by mechanical means until the patient has again its functions independently (Ramon et al., 2007). An interesting definition of intensive medicine can be: a multidisciplinary area that addresses specifically three moments, the prevention, diagnose and therapy of patients and physiopathology conditions potentially reversible that threaten or present the failure of one or more vital functions (Silva, 2007).