Knowledge Management, Data Mining, and Text Mining in Medical Informatics

In this chapter we provide a broad overview of selected knowledge management, data mining, and text mining techniques and their use in various emerging biomedical applications. It aims to set the context for subsequent chapters. We first introduce five major paradigms for machine learning and data analysis including: probabilistic and statistical models, symbolic learning and rule induction, neural networks, evolution-based algorithms, and analytic learning and fuzzy logic. We also discuss their relevance and potential for biomedical research. Example applications of relevant knowledge management, data mining, and text mining research are then reviewed in order including: ontologies; knowledge management for health care, biomedical literature, heterogeneous databases, information visualization, and multimedia databases; and data and text mining for health care, literature, and biological data. We conclude the paper with discussions of privacy and confidentiality issues of relevance to biomedical data mining.