Semi-Supervised Learning Algorithm for Identifying High-Priority Drug–Drug Interactions Through Adverse Event Reports

Identifying drug-drug interactions (DDIs) is a critical enabler for reducing adverse drug events and improving patient safety. Generating proper DDI alerts during prescribing workflow has the potential to prevent DDIrelated adverse events. However, the implementation of DDI alerting system remains a challenge as users are experiencing alert overload which causes alert fatigue. One strategy to optimize the current system is to establish a list of high-priority DDIs for alerting purposes, though it is a resource-intensive task. In this study, we propose a machine learning framework to extract useful features from the FDA adverse event reports and then identify potential highpriority DDIs using an autoencoder-based semi-supervised learning algorithm. The experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of using adverse event feature representations in differentiating highand low-priority DDIs. Additionally, the proposed algorithm utilizes stacked autoencoders and weighted support vector machine for boosting classification performance, which outperforms other competing methods in terms of F-measure and AUC score. This framework integrates multiple information sources, leverages domain knowledge and clinical evidence, and provides a practical approach for pre-screening high-priority DDI candidates for medication alerts.