Improving counterfactual reasoning with kernelised dynamic mixing models

PLoS One. 2018 Nov 12;13(11):e0205839. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0205839. eCollection 2018.

Abstract

Simulation-based approaches to disease progression allow us to make counterfactual predictions about the effects of an untried series of treatment choices. However, building accurate simulators of disease progression is challenging, limiting the utility of these approaches for real world treatment planning. In this work, we present a novel simulation-based reinforcement learning approach that mixes between models and kernel-based approaches to make its forward predictions. On two real world tasks, managing sepsis and treating HIV, we demonstrate that our approach both learns state-of-the-art treatment policies and can make accurate forward predictions about the effects of treatments on unseen patients.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Computer Simulation*
  • HIV / pathogenicity
  • HIV Infections / physiopathology
  • HIV Infections / therapy*
  • HIV Infections / virology
  • Humans
  • Sepsis / microbiology
  • Sepsis / physiopathology
  • Sepsis / therapy*
  • Viral Load

Grants and funding

This research was supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation, project number 51MRP0 158328 to SP, and the Harvard Data Science Initiative to OG. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.