Enhancing laboratory detection of disease. Part 3: Detecting a hantavirus disease event: a case study.

A purposive syndromic classification diagnostic system, with known means to ends, has been developed that extracts bits of structural information from endogenous laboratory data. An edifice of structural information for organization, regulation, and decision-making was built for determining future pathophysiological events by asking the fewest questions to define the next event uniquely. The structural information is based on laboratory ordering patterns of physicians for patient populations they serve. Patient history and a physical examination may be included as hardware and software evolves for linking more aspects of the medical record.