Synthesizing complex population selection criteria

An apparatus, comprising:

• a processor and memory configured to,
• query patient records to identify a control set of the patient records that satisfy N multi-dimensional patient selection criteria, wherein N is an integer greater than 12;
• synthesize all possible permutations of the multi-dimensional patient selection criteria, including to iteratively search the patient records with respect to progressively larger subsets of the patient selection criteria to identify interim sets of the patient records that satisfy the respective subsets of the patient selection criteria, wherein a difference between an interim set of the patient records and the control set of the patient records is compared to a threshold to identify when the threshold is exceeded;
• and
• output the subset of the patient selection criteria for which the difference between the interim set of patient records and the control set of the patient records exceeds the threshold.

A non-transitory computer readable medium encoded with a computer program that comprises instructions to cause a processor to:

• query patient records to identify a control set of the patient records that satisfy N multi-dimensional patient selection criteria, wherein N is an integer greater than 12;
• synthesize all possible permutations of the multi-dimensional patient selection criteria, including to iteratively search the patient records with respect to progressively larger subsets of the patient selection criteria to identify interim sets of the patient records that satisfy the respective subsets of the patient selection criteria, wherein a difference between an interim set of the patient records and the control set of the patient records is compared to a threshold to identify when the threshold is exceeded;
• and
• output the subset of the patient selection criteria for which the difference between the interim set of patient records and the control set of the patient records exceeds the threshold.