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Toward a new human pathology. I. Biopathological populations, or sets: a substitute for the old pathology's diseases
Insights
Traditional disease classification struggles with overlapping patient data. Biopathological set theory offers a solution by allowing cases to belong to multiple sets, improving pathology data organization.
Area of Science:
- Pathology
- Biomedical Informatics
- Set Theory Applications
Background:
- Diseases are traditionally classified as mutually exclusive categories.
- Increasing biomedical data reveals frequent cross-over similarities among cases in different disease classes.
- Current classification systems face challenges in handling this data overlap.
Purpose of the Study:
- To propose an alternative to traditional disease classification methods.
- To introduce biopathological set theory as a framework for organizing complex pathology data.
- To address the limitations of mutually exclusive disease concepts in the era of big data.
Main Methods:
- Utilizing principles of set theory, which allows for overlapping categories.
- Applying set theory to assign patient cases to multiple biopathological sets based on data.
- Contrasting set theory with traditional classification theory.
Main Results:
- Biopathological set theory accommodates overlap among case categories.
- Pathologists can assign cases to multiple relevant sets, reflecting complex biopathological similarities.
- This approach provides a more serviceable method for categorizing cases than mutually exclusive diseases.
Conclusions:
- Biopathological set theory offers a robust alternative to traditional disease classification.
- It effectively manages the complexities arising from abundant and overlapping biomedical data.
- This framework enhances the organization and interpretation of human pathology data.
Abstract:
Diseases are class concepts. They are used to group biomedical cases according to biopathological similarities perceived among them. Because calss concepts are mutually exclusive, a patient's ailment has to be considered as one, and only one, disease. However, as biotechnical data have multiplied, cross-over similarities among cases in different disease classes have become troublesomely frequent. For that reason, the abundance of data requires a method to handle overlap. Set theory differs from classification theory by allowing overlap among categories. Using set theory, a pathologist can assign a given case to as many biopathological sets as the data require. Therefore, biopathological set theory provides a substitute for mutually exclusive diseases, which are no longer a serviceable way to categorize cases and to organize the data of human pathology.