Medical information system, health records, and knowledge banks.

A medical decision system with the capability to answer questions in an interactive mode to assist clinical decisions is described. The system consists of four modules: (a) clinical case history bank, (b) pooled clinical experience bank, (c) clinical knowledge band, and (d) biomedical research bank. At the human/machine interface, an encoder transforms input natural language into codes and retransforms output into natural language. If properly authorized, the physician can request his patient's files, ask for clinical experience in similar cases, ask for related textbook knowledge, or browse among related research findings or speculations. All four modules have been tested as prototypes. Multidisciplinary cooperation is needed for the implementation of a national medical information network and for the reorientation of clinical and academic medicine.