A New Graph-Based Clustering Approach: Application to PMSI Data

Graph coloring is used to characterize some properties of graphs. A b-coloring of a graph G (using colors 1,2,...,k) is a coloring of the vertices of G such that (i) two neighbors have different colors (proper coloring) and (ii) for each color class there exists a dominating vertex which is adjacent to all other k-1 color classes. In the French healthcare system, the classification of patients into diagnosis related groups (DRGs) is performed using a supervised approach according to a decision tree. The main problem of this classification scheme concerns the heterogeneity of several DRGs resulting from the variety of pathology and examinations within the DRG class. In this paper, we propose a new approach of clustering based on a b-coloring of graphs to define a typology of patients