We consider the problem of learning an optimal prescriptive tree (i.e., an interpretable treatment assignment policy in the form of a binary tree) of moderate depth, from observational data. This problem arises in numerous socially important domains such as public health and personalized medicine, where interpretable and data-driven interventions are sought based on data gathered … Read more
Problem definition: Effective hypertension management is critical to reducing consequences of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease, a leading cause of death in the United States. Clinical guidelines for hypertension can be enhanced using decision-analytic approaches, capable of capturing many complexities in treatment planning. However, model-generated recommendations may be uninterpretable/unintuitive, limiting their acceptability in practice. We address this … Read more
In linear classifiers, such as the Support Vector Machine (SVM), a score is associated with each feature and objects are assigned to classes based on the linear combination of the scores and the values of the features. Inspired by discrete psychometric scales, which measure the extent to which a factor is in agreement with a … Read more