2.1. Knowledge-Based CDSS
To manage and utilize big data, an architecture called a knowledge base has emerged, and a methodology has been proposed to incorporate a knowledge base built by correlation of the accumulated data based on the experience of clinicians in a CDSS [
7]. This is categorized as a knowledge-based CDSS that supports decision-making by inferring results from a rule-based knowledge base with an inference engine. Accordingly, it is important to design a knowledge base structure and appropriate rule system for each field. The features, functions and applied domain of knowledge-based CDSS are organized in
Table 1.
Knowledge-based CDSSs define rules based on the literature, practice, or patient-oriented evidence [
8] and are therefore often used in clinical practice based on clinical guidelines or in Evidence Based Medicine (EBM). Rule-base Inference Methodology using the Evidential Reasoning (RIMER) is based on a Belief Rule Base (BRB) system [
9,
10,
11]. BRB systems set belief degrees to represent different types of uncertain knowledge and extend the If–Then rules to represent knowledge. Most BRB-based CDSS frameworks comprise an interfacial layer, an application processing layer and a data management layer [
12,
13,
14]. These frameworks have proven their performance by in various fields, such as COVID-19 [
15] and heart failure [
16], psychogenic pain [
17], tuberculosis [
18], acute coronary syndrome (ACS) [
19], and lymph node cancer metastasis[
20].
However, an effective knowledge representation for CDSS could be Decision Tree, Bayesian Network, or Nearest Neighbors [
21]. A study leveraging decision trees proposed a knowledge modeling method in which a clinical model extracted from glaucoma clinical practice guidelines was represented as mind maps and converted into iterative decision trees by clinicians and engineers [
22]. In a similar study, mind maps representing the clinical treatment process for thyroid nodules obtained from clinicians is converted into an iterative decision tree model to extract rules [
23]. This is followed by the process of representing tacit knowledge to explicit knowledge and finally converting it to executable knowledge. In another study on a decision-tree-based CDSS, a pediatric allergy knowledge base, ONNX inference engine, and tree algorithm were used to provide knowledge of diagnosis and treatment to clinicians [
24].
Additionally, Bayesian network-based CDSS, which is used in various medical areas, (such as liver disease [
25], breast cancer [
26], infectious diseases [
27], diabetes [
28], angina [
29], respiratory diseases [
30], and lymph node cancer metastasis [
31]) uses a what–if analysis mechanism. In the field of dental hygiene, CNNs have recently been used in conjunction with a Bayesian network framework based on the (Expectation-Maximization (EM) algorithm to detect abnormal oral images [
32]. Additionally, a diagnosis of an Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) diagnosis system has been proposed using a fuzzy Bayesian network with a fuzzy ontology to resolve ambiguity and uncertainty in outbreaks [
33].
Research using the K-Nearest Neighbor (KNN) algorithm structured medical information by classifying similar clinical cases through ontology extraction methods for Case Based Reasoning (CBR) [
34]. Moreover, a Computer-Aided Diagnosis (CAD) system proposed for melanoma diagnosis provides a related ontology based on Asymmetry, Border, Color and Differential (ABCD) structure rules, and classifies similar melanoma cases using the KNN algorithm [
35]. Another study that uses similarity of knowledge for decision-making, as in the aforementioned studies, provides an appropriate diagnosis for patients semantically classified by time-series similarity based on the patient’s medical history [
36].
Knowledge-based CDSS supports decision-making based on pre-built knowledge base, effective data modeling, and knowledge-based updating for each domain is also ongoing. Recently, in genomics, a clinical genomic data model has been proposed to analyze clinical genomic workflow and extract attributes using genomic data for clinical application of genomic information [
37]. Additionally, methodologies have appeared to facilitate knowledge base updating by analyzing newly acquired textual knowledge through natural language processing to generate rules [
38].
Knowledge-based CDSS has potential in that the decision-making process is clear and traceable. However, it is limited by maintenance and construction costs because it relies on medical specialists and knowledge engineers for standardization and error correction, as data quality control is essential [
39,
40].
2.2. Non-Knowledge-Based CDSS
With the explosion of data and specialized knowledge, the amount of information that must be processed to make clinical decisions is growing astronomically. To learn on its own like a human, using massive amounts of data, deep learning, and AI, which is based on artificial neural networks, supports clinical decision-making. These methods analyze patterns in patient data to draw associations between symptoms and diagnoses. Moreover, deep learning and AI can be used to analyze various data, including text, images, videos, audio, and signals, enabling the development of non-knowledge-based CDSS that can understand the overall clinical situation and context. The first step toward a nonknowledge-based CDSS began with analyzing images and using them to make clinical decisions. A convolutional neural network (CNN) [
41], which trains image patterns by mimicking the structure of the human optic nerve has been used to diagnose obstructive sleep apnea by learning high-order correlation features between polysomnography images and their labels [
42,
43], and an automated system has been proposed to optimize patient satisfaction by analyzing patients’ experiences with ambulance transport services with a combined model of CNN and word embeddings [
44]. Similarly, a technique for diagnosing melanoma using a single CNN trained on a dataset of clinical images has been introduced [
45].
There are also a number of cases of recurrent neural networks (RNNs) that can handle time-series data. EHR data are good candidates for using RNNs [
46] because it provide clinical records with temporal information. A previous study [
47] applied RNNs to the EHR data of heart failure patients to predict heart failure outperformed machine learning methods such as SVMs [
48], MLPs [
49], logistic regression [
50], and KNNs [
51]. Because ECG data also contain temporal information, ECG signals can be analyzed using RNN-based models detect sleep apnea [
52].
When dealing with clinical data, owing to its long-term properties, the problem of forgetting previous data and ignoring past information may arise. Therefore, studies using LSTMs [
53] to predict future data by considering past data have been proposed. An LSTM was used to learn multiple diagnostic labels to classify diagnoses [
54] and oral–nasal thermal airflow, nasal pressure, and abdominal breathing-guided plethysmography data from polysomnography were analyzed with a bidirectional LSTM model to diagnose sleep apnea [
55]. Deep learning is frequently applied in medical image analysis. Chest radiographs can be analyzed using deep learning to diagnose chest diseases such as lung nodules [
56], lung cancer [
57], and pulmonary tuberculosis [
58].
Unlike traditional supervised and unsupervised learning, reinforcement learning [
59] generated its own training data by observing the current state and selecting future actions. Because existing CDSSs are trained based on evaluations made by different clinicians with different criteria, interrelated symptoms are not considered in some cases. This problem can be solved by applying reinforcement learning, which is used to learn complex environments. A CDSS based on a deep reinforcement learning algorithm has been introduced to determine the initial dose for ICU patients, where an accurate medication prescription is critical, and prevents mis-dosing and complications. [
60] Reinforcement learning of secure computations enables the implementation of patient-centered clinical decision-making systems while protecting sensitive clinical data. A privacy-preserving reinforcement learning framework with iterative secure computation was proposed to provide dynamic treatment decisions without leaking sensitive information to unauthorized users [
3]. A reinforcement learning-based conversational software for radiotherapy was also studied, where the framework used graph neural networks and reinforcement learning to improve clinical decision-making performance in radiology with many variables, uncertain treatment responses, and inter-patient heterogeneity [
61].
BERT [
62], a large language model based on a Transformer [
63], was used to develop a CDSS with natural language understanding capabilities. To reduce diagnostic errors, a framework for multi-classifying diagnosis codes in EHRs using BERT [
64] has been developed to help clinicians predict the most likely diagnosis. However, specialists have raised concerns about the reliability and responsibility of these deep learning and AI models because of their inability to explain their decisions. Therefore, they are often unwilling to use them in diagnosis. To this end, it is necessary to adopt AI, which provides evidence for prediction and an understandable explanation.
2.3. XAI-Based CDSS
EXplainable AI (XAI)[
5], has emerged to overcome the black-box[
6] problem of deep learning models, which means that deep learning models have the highest perfor-mance compared to other rule-based or machine learning models but have the limitation of lacking interpretability. This can be described as the "performance–interpretability trade-off, " and is shown in
Figure 3. Performance is highest for deep learning, followed by machine learning models (Decision Tree, Nearest Neighbors, Bayesian Network), and rule-based models; however, transparency (interpretability) is inversely proportional. In other words, applying XAI to deep learning models is capable of explaining the reason and logic behind the results predicted by the model to ensure transparency and reliability of the results with high-performance deep learning. With attempts to apply XAI in various fields [
65], XAI is gained attention as a solution to the uncertainty problem in CDSS systems where accuracy and reliability are important [
66].
The description techniques used in XAI can be broadly categorized into scoop-, model-, complexity-, and methodology-based [
67]. The most popular XAI methods in recent research include SHapley Additive exPlanations (SHAP) [
68], (local interpretable model–agnostic Explanations (LIME) [
69], Post hoc Interpretability [
70], and (Gradient-weighted Class Activation Mapping (GradCAM) [
70].
Scoop-based techniques determine the contribution of data based on the importance features to train the AI model. A prominent example is the local explainers method (LIME) [
71] is a method specific to a particular instance or outcome. LIMEs directly explain how the model’s input data change the outcome, and after training the model, it can make guesses about samples that have not appeared before [
72]. For COVID-19, LIME and traditional machine learning models were combined to identify the features that had the greatest impact on medical history, time of onset, and patients’ primary symptoms [
68]. Similarly, an LSTM model was used in a study on depressive-symptom detection, in conjunction with a LIME approach to identify text suggestive of depressive symptoms [
73]. Other applications include the diagnosis of Parkinson disease [
74], hip disease [
75], Alzheimer’s disease and mild cognitive impairment [
76].
By contrast, SHAP is a global explainer method that provides a theoretical interpretation of any dataset uses cooperative game theory concepts [
77] to calculate the contributions of biomarkers or clinical features (players) for a specific disease outcome (Reward) [
72]. To predict postoperative malnutrition in children with congenital heart disease, the XGBoost and SHAP algorithms were used to calculate the average of five risk factors (weight one month after surgery, weight at discharge, etc.) for all patients [
78]. PHysiologicAl Signal Embeddings (PHASE), a method for transforming time-series signals into input features, wasfirst applied to embed body signals with an LSTM model to features extracted using SHAP from EMR/EHR data [
79]. In addition, a multi-layer XAI framework utilizing multimodal data, such as MRI and PET images, cognitive scores, and medical histories, have been proposed [
80].
SHAP is applied to all layers of the framework, where the first layer performs multiple classification for the early diagnosis of AD. In the second layer, the binary classification score is were used to determine the transition from cognitive impairment to AD [
80]. Similarly, SHAP has been widely used in various diseases and clinical domains such as predicting readmission [
81,
82], COVID-19 [
83,
84,
85,
86], liver cancer [
87], influenza [
88], and malignant cerebral edema [
89].
More recently, researchers have utilized LIME and SHAP simultaneously to ensure a convincing description of the system. A hybrid approach combining Vision Transformer (ViT) and a Gated Recurrent Unit) was used to generate LIME heat maps using the top three features from the brain MRI images, and SHAP was used to visualize the model’s predictions to demonstrate the validity of data patterns [
90]. In addition, the Department of Chronic Kidney Disease also used LIME and SHAP algorithms simultaneously to represent the importance of features in the best model trained by five machine learning methods methods (Random Forest, Decision Tree, Naïve Bayes, XGBoost, and Logistic Regression) [
91].
Model-based techniques can be classified into model-specific and model-agnostic methods. Model-specific methods utilize the unique features of a model to make decisions, indicating that they can only be applied to the internal operations of a specific model. An example is Score-CAM [
92], which is based on CNNs and compares output for the given input features, thereby indicating their importance. A previous study proposed a system for classifying images from a clock-drawing test as a tool for diagnosing dementia was trained on API-Net [
93] and visualized it using Score-CAM to provide explainability, and transparency[
94]. However, model-agnostic methods are model-independent and can be applied to any model or algorithm. As a CDSS tool that reduces the model dependency, a COVID-19 symptom severity classifier that utilizes different machine learning models to identify high-risk patients for COVID-19 has been proposed [
95].
Complexity-based techniques make machine learning or deep learning models fully interpretable. Interpretability can be categorized into intrinsic interpretability [
96] and post hoc interpretability [
72] depending on the viewpoint. In general, intrinsic interpretability indicates that a model with a simple architecture can be explained by the trained model itself, whereas post hoc interpretability means that the trained model has a complex architecture and must be retrained to explain this phenomenon. In a study on brain tumor detection based on MRI images, three pre-trained CNNs, DarkNet53 [
92], EfficientNet-B0 [
97], and DenseNet201 [
98], were used to extract features using a hybrid methodology to explain post-interpretability [
99].
Another framework for brain tumor diagnosis, NeuroNet19, combines a 19-layer VGG19 that detects complex hierarchical features in images with an inverted pyramid pooling module (iPPM) model, which refines these features, leveraging post-interpretability [
100]. Methodology-based techniques are categorized into Backpropagation-based and Perturbation-based [
67], among which Backpropagation-based GradCAM was proposed to describe CNN models with good performance [
101]. GradCAM was applied to the convolutional layer at the end of the CNN, and uses the gradient information of the layer to find the features that are highly involved in a particular decision [
72,
102]. To further improve classification performance, several studies have been proposed to predict oral cancer from oral images using guided attention inference network (GAIN) along with the aforementioned CNN-based VGG19 model GradCAM [
103], and also to diagnose glaucoma from fundus images using GradCAM’s heatmap and ResNet-50 model [
104]. SBecause CNN models are widely applied in image classification and processing, GradCAM technology is used in several studies utilizing image data [
105,
106,
107,
108,
109,
110,
111].
Table 2.
Non-Knowledge-based CDSS.
Table 2.
Non-Knowledge-based CDSS.