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<article xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" article-type="research-article">
<front>
<journal-meta>
<journal-id journal-id-type="publisher-id">JDS</journal-id>
<journal-title-group><journal-title>Journal of Data Science</journal-title></journal-title-group>
<issn pub-type="epub">1683-8602</issn><issn pub-type="ppub">1680-743X</issn><issn-l>1680-743X</issn-l>
<publisher>
<publisher-name>School of Statistics, Renmin University of China</publisher-name>
</publisher>
</journal-meta>
<article-meta>
<article-id pub-id-type="publisher-id">JDS1193</article-id>
<article-id pub-id-type="doi">10.6339/25-JDS1193</article-id>
<article-categories><subj-group subj-group-type="heading">
<subject>Statistical Data Science</subject></subj-group></article-categories>
<title-group>
<article-title>Transfer Learning for Individualized Treatment Rules with Application to Sepsis Patients Data</article-title>
</title-group>
<contrib-group>
<contrib contrib-type="author">
<name><surname>Wang</surname><given-names>Andong</given-names></name><email xlink:href="mailto:andongwang7@gmail.com">andongwang7@gmail.com</email><email xlink:href="mailto:andong@unc.edu">andong@unc.edu</email><xref ref-type="aff" rid="j_jds1193_aff_001">1</xref><xref ref-type="corresp" rid="cor1">∗</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author">
<name><surname>Wentzlof</surname><given-names>Kelly</given-names></name><xref ref-type="aff" rid="j_jds1193_aff_002">2</xref><xref ref-type="fn" rid="j_jds1193_fn_001">†</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author">
<name><surname>Rajala</surname><given-names>Johnny</given-names></name><xref ref-type="aff" rid="j_jds1193_aff_003">3</xref><xref ref-type="fn" rid="j_jds1193_fn_001">†</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author">
<name><surname>Green</surname><given-names>Miontranese</given-names></name><xref ref-type="aff" rid="j_jds1193_aff_004">4</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author">
<name><surname>Zhang</surname><given-names>Dr.Yunshu</given-names></name><xref ref-type="aff" rid="j_jds1193_aff_001">1</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author">
<name><surname>Yang</surname><given-names>Dr.Shu</given-names></name><xref ref-type="aff" rid="j_jds1193_aff_001">1</xref>
</contrib>
<aff id="j_jds1193_aff_001"><label>1</label>Department of Statistics, <institution>North Carolina State University</institution>, Raleigh, NC 27695, <country>USA</country></aff>
<aff id="j_jds1193_aff_002"><label>2</label>Department of Statistics, <institution>Indiana University</institution>, Bloomington, IN 47045, <country>USA</country></aff>
<aff id="j_jds1193_aff_003"><label>3</label>Department of Mathematics, <institution>University of Maryland</institution>, College Park, MD 20742, <country>USA</country></aff>
<aff id="j_jds1193_aff_004"><label>4</label>Department of Statistics, <institution>California State University</institution>, Long Beach, CA 90840, <country>USA</country></aff>
</contrib-group>
<author-notes>
<corresp id="cor1"><label>∗</label>Corresponding author. Email: <ext-link ext-link-type="uri" xlink:href="mailto:andongwang7@gmail.com">andongwang7@gmail.com</ext-link> or <ext-link ext-link-type="uri" xlink:href="mailto:andong@unc.edu">andong@unc.edu</ext-link>.</corresp><fn id="j_jds1193_fn_001"><label>†</label>
<p>Equal Contribution.</p></fn>
</author-notes>
<pub-date pub-type="ppub"><year>2025</year></pub-date><pub-date pub-type="epub"><day>7</day><month>8</month><year>2025</year></pub-date><volume content-type="ahead-of-print">0</volume><issue>0</issue><fpage>1</fpage><lpage>18</lpage><supplementary-material id="S1" content-type="archive" xlink:href="jds1193_s001.zip" mimetype="application" mime-subtype="x-zip-compressed">
<caption>
<title>Supplementary Material</title>
<p>Supplementary materials include pre-processed eICU-CRD and MIMIC-III data files used in the medical application, an R script containing the R functions and R Markdown files for both the simulation study and the medical application.</p>
</caption>
</supplementary-material><history><date date-type="received"><day>24</day><month>11</month><year>2024</year></date><date date-type="accepted"><day>23</day><month>6</month><year>2025</year></date></history>
<permissions><copyright-statement>2025 The Author(s). Published by the School of Statistics and the Center for Applied Statistics, Renmin University of China.</copyright-statement><copyright-year>2025</copyright-year>
<license license-type="open-access" xlink:href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">
<license-p>Open access article under the <ext-link ext-link-type="uri" xlink:href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</ext-link> license.</license-p></license></permissions>
<abstract>
<p>Modern precision medicine aims to utilize real-world data to provide the best treatment for an individual patient. An individualized treatment rule (ITR) maps each patient’s characteristics to a recommended treatment scheme that maximizes the expected outcome of the patient. A challenge precision medicine faces is population heterogeneity, as studies on treatment effects are often conducted on source populations that differ from the populations of interest in terms of the distribution of patient characteristics. Our research goal is to explore a transfer learning algorithm that aims to address the population heterogeneity problem and obtain targeted, optimal, and interpretable ITRs. The algorithm incorporates a calibrated augmented inverse probability weighting estimator for the average treatment effect and employs value function maximization for the target population using Genetic Algorithm to produce our desired ITR. To demonstrate its practical utility, we apply this transfer learning algorithm to two large medical databases, eICU Collaborative Research Database and Medical Information Mart for Intensive Care III. We first identify the important covariates, treatment options, and outcomes of interest based on the two databases, and then estimate the optimal linear ITRs for patients with sepsis. Our research introduces and applies new techniques for data fusion to obtain data-driven ITRs that cater to patients’ individual medical needs in a population of interest. By emphasizing generalizability and personalized decision-making, this methodology extends its potential application beyond medicine to fields such as marketing, technology, social sciences, and education.</p>
</abstract>
<kwd-group>
<label>Keywords</label>
<kwd>augmented Inverse Probability Weighting</kwd>
<kwd>causal inference</kwd>
<kwd>generalizability</kwd>
<kwd>genetic algorithm</kwd>
<kwd>optimization</kwd>
<kwd>population heterogeneity</kwd>
<kwd>precision medicine</kwd>
</kwd-group>
<funding-group><funding-statement>The authors gratefully acknowledge the generous support from the National Science Foundation (NSF) grant DMS2051010 and National Security Agency (NSA) grant H98230-22-1-0006. This research is also supported in part by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) training grant T32ES007018.</funding-statement></funding-group>
</article-meta>
</front>
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