Abstract
OBJECTIVE: Readmission to the coronary care unit (CCU) has significant implications for patient outcomes and healthcare expenditure, emphasizing the urgency to accurately identify patients at high readmission risk. This study aims to construct and externally validate a predictive model for CCU readmission using machine learning (ML) algorithms across multiple hospitals. METHODS: Patient information, including demographics, medical history, and laboratory test results were collected from electronic health record system and contributed to a total of 40 features. Five ML models: logistic regression, random forest, support vector machine, gradient boosting, and multilayer perceptron were employed to estimate the readmission risk. RESULTS: The gradient boosting model was selected demonstrated superior performance with an area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) of 0.887 in the internal validation set. Further external validation in hold-out test set and three other medical centers upheld the model's robustness with consistent high AUCs, ranging from 0.852 to 0.879. CONCLUSION: The results endorse the integration of ML algorithms in healthcare to enhance patient risk stratification, potentially optimizing clinical interventions, and diminishing the burden of CCU readmissions.