Iterative Application of UMAP-Based Algorithms for Fully Synthetic Healthcare Tabular Data Generation

Building on a previously developed partially synthetic data generation algorithm utilizing data visualization techniques, this study extends the novel algorithm to generate fully synthetic tabular healthcare data. In this enhanced form, the algorithm serves as an alternative to conventional methods...

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Bibliographic Details
Authors: Lázaro, Carla, Angulo, Cecilio
Format: article
Status:Published version
Publication Date:2024
Country:España
Institution:Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC)
Repository:DIGITAL.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSIC
OAI Identifier:oai:digital.csic.es:10261/377266
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/10261/377266
https://api.elsevier.com/content/abstract/scopus_id/85213467596
Access Level:Open access
Keyword:Data augmentation
Fully synthetic data
Healthcare tabular data
UMAP
Description
Summary:Building on a previously developed partially synthetic data generation algorithm utilizing data visualization techniques, this study extends the novel algorithm to generate fully synthetic tabular healthcare data. In this enhanced form, the algorithm serves as an alternative to conventional methods based on Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs) or Variational Autoencoders (VAEs). By iteratively applying the original methodology, the adapted algorithm employs UMAP (Uniform Manifold Approximation and Projection), a dimensionality reduction technique, to validate generated samples through low-dimensional clustering. This approach has been successfully applied to three healthcare domains: prostate cancer, breast cancer, and cardiovascular disease. The generated synthetic data have been rigorously evaluated for fidelity and utility. Results show that the UMAP-based algorithm outperforms GAN- and VAE-based generation methods across different scenarios. In fidelity assessments, it achieved smaller maximum distances between the cumulative distribution functions of real and synthetic data for different attributes. In utility evaluations, the UMAP-based synthetic datasets enhanced machine learning model performance, particularly in classification tasks. In conclusion, this method represents a robust solution for generating secure, high-quality synthetic healthcare data, effectively addressing data scarcity challenges.