Medical diagnosis using fuzzy cognitive map classifier

In this study, we address the problem of medical diagnosis by applying Fuzzy Cognitive Map (FCM). A distinctive feature of the FCM is its ability to simulate the development of the disease in time. By this simulation, it is possible to predict the severity of the disease by having future knowledge on current medical investigations. For the first time in this paper, we construct an FCM-based classifier dedicated solely to perform medical diagnosis. To learn the FCM, we use an evolutionary algorithm explicitly specifying the newly designed fitness function. Real, publicly available medical data are applied for the validation and evaluation of the proposed approach.