Saoussen Layouni

Work place: Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Department, Faculty of Medicine Sousse, Sousse University, Sousse, Tunisia

E-mail: Layouni.saoussen@FAMSO.u-sousse.tn

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Research Interests:

Biography

Dr. Saoussen Layouni Hospital-University Assistant in Physical Medicine and Functional Rehabilitation, practicing at the Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Department of CHU Sahloul in Sousse, Tunisia. She is also a faculty member at the Faculty of Medicine of Sousse, where she serves as the Deputy Vice Dean for Information and Communication Technologies. Additionally, she coordinates the Professional Master’s in Medical Informatics and leads the Communication Unit at the Faculty of Medicine. She is a member of the research laboratory LR19ES09, focusing on “Exercise Physiology and Pathophysiology: From Integrated to Molecular Biology, Medicine, and Health.” She is also an active member of the Tunisian Society of Physical Medicine and Functional Rehabilitation, the Pedagogical and Digital Innovation Unit, and the Communication Unit at the University of Sousse. Furthermore, she is responsible for the male section of the internal unit in the Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Department at CHU Sahloul Sousse.

Author Articles
An Ontology Driven Machine Learning Framework for Early Prediction in Children with Cerebral Palsy

By Rahma Haouas Zahwanie Lilia Cheniti-Belcadhi Saoussen Layouni Ghada El Khayat

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5815/ijitcs.2026.02.06, Pub. Date: 8 Apr. 2026

Cerebral palsy (CP) is a neurological disorder that affects 2-3 in every 1,000 births worldwide. Early prediction of severity is vital for optimizing therapeutic interventions. This study introduces OntoML-CP, a novel hybrid intelligence framework that combines inductive machine learning with deductive ontology-based reasoning to predict Gross Motor Function Classification System (GMFCS) levels in children with CP. We present a hybrid architecture combining semantic features from a CP ontology and clinical data for machine learning, using ontological reasoning to refine predictions and improve clinical validity and interpretability. The clinical ontology built using OWL captures the relationships between symptoms of cerebral palsy, developmental disorders, and motor functions, enriched with clinical knowledge and FOAF to represent key stakeholders like patients, parents, and therapists. Using a synthetic dataset of 1,695 children with CP, generated by physical medicine and rehabilitation specialists based on real clinical cases and validated through expert review, we address demographic diversity and missing data through preprocessing techniques to correct class imbalance during model evaluation and selection. Seven supervised algorithms were evaluated, among which Random Forest and Gradient Boosting models achieved superior performance (accuracy: 85% and 83%), when augmented with our ontological framework. The models showed consistent performance across all GMFCS levels with macro-averaged F1-scores of 0.81 and 0.79, respectively, and maintained high sensitivity for severe cases (levels 4-5), significantly outperforming baseline models. The semantic layer enhances predictions with logical explanations and presents them through SPARQL queries and intuitive visual formats designed for healthcare professionals. Our ontology-driven approach provides medicine with not only accurate predictions but also context-aware, clinically interpretable explanations that support informed decisions and enable personalized, actionable CP severity predictions.

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