Document Type : Research Manuscript

Authors

• Vadood keramati ¹
• Ramin Sadeghian ¹
• Maryam Hamedi ¹
• Ashkan Shabbak ²

¹ Department of Industrial Engineering, Payame Noor University, PO Box 3697-19395, Tehran, Iran

² Statistical Resarch and Training Center

Abstract

Record linkage is a tool used to gather information and data from different sources. It is used in activities related to government, such as e-government and the production of register-based data. This method compares the strings in the databases and there are different methods for record linkage, such as deterministic and probabilistic assumption. This paper presents a proposed expert system for record linkage of data received from multiple databases. The system is designed to save time and reduce errors in the process of aggregating data. The inputs for this system include several linked fields, thresholds, and metric methods, which are explained along with the evaluation of the used method. To validate the system, inputs from two databases and seven information fields, comprising 100,000 simulated records, were used. The results reveal a higher accuracy of possible record linkage compared to deterministic records. Furthermore, the highest linkage was achieved using five fields with varying thresholds. In assessing the various metric methods, it was found that metric methods with less than 80% accuracy and the Winkler metric method with over 86% accuracy were utilized. These findings demonstrate that the implementation of the proposed automated system significantly saves time and enhances the flexibility of selection methods.

Keywords

• Record linkage
• metric string
• expert system
• assessment

Main Subjects

• Statistical Simulation