Machine Learning-Based Stroke Risk Prediction System: A Clinical Comparative Study of Traditional and Advanced Models

This project was developed by FlaviusOBO and is open-sourced on GitHub (link: https://github.com/FlaviusOBO/Stroke-Prediction-System). It aims to systematically compare the performance of traditional machine learning models and advanced deep learning models in stroke risk prediction, exploring the optimal solution that balances accuracy and clinical practicality.

Stroke is one of the leading causes of death and long-term disability worldwide, making early risk identification and intervention crucial. Traditional clinical assessments rely on experience and simple statistics, which struggle to leverage complex patterns in data. With the application of ML in the medical field, a core question emerges: which is more suitable for medical scenarios—traditional models (logistic regression, random forests, etc.) or advanced deep learning models (neural networks, etc.)?

Data Preprocessing: Handling missing values, class imbalance, and feature engineering; Traditional Models: Logistic regression (baseline, interpretable), SVM, random forests, XGBoost/LightGBM (excellent for structured data); Advanced Models: MLP, CNN (image analysis), RNN/LSTM (time-series data), Transformer (feature interaction).

In addition to accuracy, evaluation metrics focus on sensitivity (high cost of missed diagnosis), specificity, AUC-ROC, and precision-recall curves. Clinical practicality requires considering model interpretability—doctors need to understand the basis of predictions. Even if deep learning models have slightly higher accuracy, their lack of interpretability may make them less practical than traditional models.

1. Assisting clinical decision-making; 2. Early screening of high-risk groups in communities; 3. Optimizing medical resource allocation; 4. Providing methodological references for other disease prediction projects.

This project represents an important exploration direction in medical AI, balancing technical indicators and clinical feasibility. In the future, we can expect multi-modal data fusion, federated learning for cross-institutional collaboration, and deployment of real-time risk assessment systems. It serves as a learning example for responsible application for medical AI developers.