PROBABILISTIC RECORD LINKAGE MODEL DERIVED FROM TRAINING DATA

A method of training a system from examples achieves high accuracy by finding the optimal weighting of different clues indicating whether two data items such as database records should be matched or linked. The trained system provides three possible outputs when presented with two data items: yes, no or I don't know (human intervention required). A maximum entropy model can be used to determine whether the two records should be linked or matched. Using the trained maximum entropy model, a high probability indicates that the pair should be linked, a low probability indicates that the pair should not be linked, and intermediate probabilities are generally held for human review.