---
language:
- en
task_categories:
- text-classification
task_ids:
- multi-class-classification
pretty_name: SymCAT Medical Triage Dataset
tags:
- medical-triage
- symptom-classification
- healthcare
- pre-triage
- symcat-derived
- natural-language-processing
- academic-project
size_categories:
- n<1K
---

# SymCAT Medical Triage Dataset

## Dataset Description

This repository contains a SymCAT-derived dataset prepared for symptom-based medical pre-triage text classification in the SortMed academic project.

The dataset contains English symptom descriptions labeled into three triage-oriented categories:

- `self_monitor`
- `consult_gp`
- `urgent`

It is intended for academic experimentation with transformer-based text classifiers and parameter-efficient fine-tuning methods. It is not a clinically validated medical dataset.

## Dataset Sources and Role

The dataset was generated from SymCAT-derived condition and symptom information and converted into a supervised text-classification format.

In the SortMed system, this dataset is used for training and evaluating the triage classification models. It is separate from the MedQuAD retrieval dataset, which is used only for retrieving related medical information.

## Dataset Structure

| Split | File | Examples |
|---|---|---:|
| Train | `train.csv` | 490 |
| Validation | `validation.csv` | 105 |
| Test | `test.csv` | 106 |
| Full dataset | `full.csv` | 701 |

## Label Mapping

| Label | ID | Meaning |
|---|---:|---|
| `self_monitor` | 0 | Symptoms appear mild and may be monitored, assuming no worsening or additional warning signs. |
| `consult_gp` | 1 | A general practitioner or non-emergency medical professional should be consulted. |
| `urgent` | 2 | Symptoms may require urgent medical attention or emergency evaluation. |

## Class Distribution

| Class | Examples |
|---|---:|
| `self_monitor` | 220 |
| `consult_gp` | 266 |
| `urgent` | 215 |

Additional statistics:

| Statistic | Value |
|---|---:|
| Total examples | 701 |
| Duplicate texts | 0 |
| Imbalance ratio | 1.237 |
| SymCAT-derived conditions before final subset selection | 801 |
| Condition-level overrides applied before final subset selection | 75 |

## Files and Columns

| File | Description |
|---|---|
| `train.csv` | Training split. |
| `validation.csv` | Validation split used for checkpoint selection and early stopping. |
| `test.csv` | Held-out test split used for final evaluation. |
| `full.csv` | Complete dataset. |
| `label_map.json` | Mapping between labels and numeric IDs. |
| `dataset_stats.json` | Dataset statistics used for documentation and reproducibility. |
| `README.md` | Dataset card documentation. |

Main columns include:

| Column | Description |
|---|---|
| `text` | Natural-language input text used by the classifier. |
| `label` | Triage class name. |
| `label_numeric` | Numeric class ID. |
| `condition_name` | Source condition name, if available. |
| `symptom_names` | Symptoms associated with the generated example. |

## Preprocessing

The dataset was generated from condition and symptom information, then transformed into short English symptom descriptions suitable for text classification.

Labels were assigned using deterministic rule-based triage logic designed for academic pre-triage experiments. The labels are weakly supervised and should not be interpreted as expert clinical annotations.

## Intended Use

This dataset can be used for:

- training medical pre-triage text classifiers;
- evaluating transformer-based classification models;
- comparing full fine-tuning with PEFT methods such as LoRA, Bottleneck MLP Adapter, and Frozen Encoder;
- academic experiments in NLP for healthcare.

## Limitations

- The labels are rule-based and not clinically validated.
- The dataset is small.
- It may not represent real patient language or demographic diversity.
- It should not be used as a standalone clinical dataset.
- It does not include patient history, vital signs, comorbidities, or physical examination findings.
- It is designed for English text only.

## Related Datasets

- [`cristian-untaru/medquad-retrieval-pretriage`](https://huggingface.co/datasets/cristian-untaru/medquad-retrieval-pretriage)

## Related Models

### Full Fine-Tuned Models

- [`cristian-untaru/distilbert-medical-triage`](https://huggingface.co/cristian-untaru/distilbert-medical-triage)
- [`cristian-untaru/biobert-medical-triage`](https://huggingface.co/cristian-untaru/biobert-medical-triage)
- [`cristian-untaru/roberta-medical-triage`](https://huggingface.co/cristian-untaru/roberta-medical-triage)
- [`cristian-untaru/biomedbert-medical-triage`](https://huggingface.co/cristian-untaru/biomedbert-medical-triage)

### LoRA Models

- [`cristian-untaru/lora-distilbert-medical-triage`](https://huggingface.co/cristian-untaru/lora-distilbert-medical-triage)
- [`cristian-untaru/lora-biobert-medical-triage`](https://huggingface.co/cristian-untaru/lora-biobert-medical-triage)
- [`cristian-untaru/lora-roberta-medical-triage`](https://huggingface.co/cristian-untaru/lora-roberta-medical-triage)
- [`cristian-untaru/lora-biomedbert-medical-triage`](https://huggingface.co/cristian-untaru/lora-biomedbert-medical-triage)

### Bottleneck MLP Adapter Models

- [`cristian-untaru/bottleneck-mlp-distilbert-medical-triage`](https://huggingface.co/cristian-untaru/bottleneck-mlp-distilbert-medical-triage)
- [`cristian-untaru/bottleneck-mlp-biobert-medical-triage`](https://huggingface.co/cristian-untaru/bottleneck-mlp-biobert-medical-triage)
- [`cristian-untaru/bottleneck-mlp-roberta-medical-triage`](https://huggingface.co/cristian-untaru/bottleneck-mlp-roberta-medical-triage)
- [`cristian-untaru/bottleneck-mlp-biomedbert-medical-triage`](https://huggingface.co/cristian-untaru/bottleneck-mlp-biomedbert-medical-triage)

### Frozen Encoder Models

- [`cristian-untaru/frozen-encoder-distilbert-medical-triage`](https://huggingface.co/cristian-untaru/frozen-encoder-distilbert-medical-triage)
- [`cristian-untaru/frozen-encoder-biobert-medical-triage`](https://huggingface.co/cristian-untaru/frozen-encoder-biobert-medical-triage)
- [`cristian-untaru/frozen-encoder-roberta-medical-triage`](https://huggingface.co/cristian-untaru/frozen-encoder-roberta-medical-triage)
- [`cristian-untaru/frozen-encoder-biomedbert-medical-triage`](https://huggingface.co/cristian-untaru/frozen-encoder-biomedbert-medical-triage)