Kamel Boulos Maged N
Faculty of Health, Education and Society, Plymouth University, Devon, UK.
Healthc Inform Res. 2012 Dec;18(4):252-8. doi: 10.4258/hir.2012.18.4.252. Epub 2012 Dec 31.
This study demonstrates the feasibility of using expert system shells for rapid clinical decision support module development.
A readily available expert system shell was used to build a simple rule-based system for the crude diagnosis of vaginal discharge. Pictures and 'canned text explanations' are extensively used throughout the program to enhance its intuitiveness and educational dimension. All the steps involved in developing the system are documented.
The system runs under Microsoft Windows and is available as a free download at http://healthcybermap.org/vagdisch.zip (the distribution archive includes both the program's executable and the commented knowledge base source as a text document). The limitations of the demonstration system, such as the lack of provisions for assessing uncertainty or various degrees of severity of a sign or symptom, are discussed in detail. Ways of improving the system, such as porting it to the Web and packaging it as an app for smartphones and tablets, are also presented.
An easy-to-use expert system shell enables clinicians to rapidly become their own 'knowledge engineers' and develop concise evidence-based decision support modules of simple to moderate complexity, targeting clinical practitioners, medical and nursing students, as well as patients, their lay carers and the general public (where appropriate). In the spirit of the social Web, it is hoped that an online repository can be created to peer review, share and re-use knowledge base modules covering various clinical problems and algorithms, as a service to the clinical community.
本研究证明了使用专家系统外壳进行快速临床决策支持模块开发的可行性。
使用一个现成的专家系统外壳构建一个用于白带初步诊断的简单基于规则的系统。在整个程序中广泛使用图片和“预设文本解释”以增强其直观性和教育意义。记录了开发该系统所涉及的所有步骤。
该系统在微软Windows系统下运行，可在http://healthcybermap.org/vagdisch.zip免费下载（分发存档包括程序的可执行文件和作为文本文件的带注释的知识库源）。详细讨论了演示系统的局限性，如缺乏评估不确定性或体征或症状不同严重程度的规定。还介绍了改进该系统的方法，如将其移植到网络并打包成适用于智能手机和平板电脑的应用程序。
一个易于使用的专家系统外壳使临床医生能够迅速成为自己的“知识工程师”，并针对临床医生、医学和护理专业学生以及患者、其非专业护理人员和普通公众（在适当情况下）开发简单到中等复杂程度的简洁的循证决策支持模块。本着社交网络的精神，希望能创建一个在线知识库，用于同行评审、分享和重复使用涵盖各种临床问题和算法的知识库模块，为临床社区服务。
