Improvement of the ANN-Based Prediction Technology for Extremely Small Biomedical Data Analysis

Abstract

Today, the field of biomedical engineering spans numerous areas of scientific research that grapple with the challenges of intelligent analysis of small datasets. Analyzing such datasets with existing artificial intelligence tools is a complex task, often complicated by issues like overfitting and other challenges inherent to machine learning methods and artificial neural networks. These challenges impose significant constraints on the practical application of these tools to the problem at hand. While data augmentation can offer some mitigation, existing methods often introduce their own set of limitations, reducing their overall effectiveness in solving the problem. In this paper, the authors present an improved neural network-based technology for predicting outcomes when analyzing small and extremely small datasets. This approach builds on the input doubling method, leveraging response surface linearization principles to improve performance. Detailed flowcharts of the improved technology’s operations are provided, alongside descriptions of new preparation and application algorithms for the proposed solution. The modeling, conducted using two biomedical datasets with optimal parameters selected via differential evolution, demonstrated high prediction accuracy. A comparison with several existing methods revealed a significant reduction in various errors, underscoring the advantages of the improved neural network technology, which does not require training, for the analysis of extremely small biomedical datasets.