Machine learning in clinical practice: prospects and pitfalls

Machine learning has huge potential to enhance clinical decision making, but there are still many limitations

Machine learning (ML), a subdiscipline of artificial intelligence, encompasses a family of computerised (machine) methods that identify (learn) patterns in large (training) datasets not detectable to humans (Box 1). Identified patterns are then encoded in a computer model or algorithm which is then tested and validated on new data. Three basic ML types exist (Box 2), with supervised and reinforcement learning being used most frequently.