ABSTRACT
This paper reviews an approach to the design and construction of a group of programs intended to function as a consultative system on the question of medical diagnosis and therapy selection. It describes the system in terms of the nature of the problems involved in: (a) making decisions, (b) adding new knowledge to the system, and (c) teaching knowledge in the program to students seeking instruction. We describe the factors which make these problems difficult, and consider the design goals that have led to the construction of a system with several novel capabilities. Many of those capabilities result from representing domain specific knowledge in the system in terms of numerous judgmental decision rules. Examples of the system in operation are given to illustrate many of these issues, and performance is compared with previous approaches to automated medical decision making. Finally, we consider the domain independence and generality of the methodology, and consider the potential impact the system may have as a tool for medical decision making.
