Patent ID: 7133856

Claim:
A method of classifying subjects into classes, wherein the classification is determined by a combination of features of the subjects, the method comprising the steps of: a) transforming the features if the features are not quantitative; b) transforming the classes with optimal scoring; c) regressing the transformed classes with optimal scoring on the transformed features according to a node specific variable ranking of each of the transformed features; d) repeating step c) for subsets of the transformed features, from least significant to most, until only one single transformed feature remains, wherein said repeating results in the creation of nested families of the transformed features; e) cross-validating the nested families of the transformed features produced by step d); f) selecting an optimal subset of the transformed features based on step e); g) defining a binary splitting criterion using the optimal subset; h) determining whether a significant association exists between membership in a class and the transformed features in the optimal subset; i) repeating step c) if the significant association exists; and j) assigning subjects to a particular class based on steps a) through i).