Modelling access to renal transplantation waiting list in a French healthcare network using a Bayesian method

Evaluation of adult candidates for kidney transplantation diverges from one centre to another. Our purpose was to assess the suitability of Bayesian method for describing the factors associated to registration on the waiting list in a French healthcare network. We have found no published paper using Bayesian method in this domain. Eight hundred and nine patients starting renal replacement therapy were included in the analysis. The data were extracted from the information system of the healthcare network. We performed conventional statistical analysis and data mining analysis using mainly Bayesian networks. The Bayesian model showed that the probability of registration on the waiting list is associated to age, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, serum albumin level, respiratory disease, physical impairment, follow-up in the department performing transplantation and past history of malignancy. These results are similar to conventional statistical method. The comparison between conventional analysis and data mining analysis showed us the contribution of the data mining method for sorting variables and having a global view of the variables' associations. Moreover theses approaches constitute an essential step toward a decisional information system for healthcare networks.