Medical informatics and pediatrics article

Authors: Johnson, Kevin B.; Feldman, Mitchell J.

Citation: Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, Dec 1995 v149

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Subjects: Medical informatics_Usage

Pediatrics_Data processing

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Abstract: Medical diagnostic decision-support (MDDS) systems can assist doctors in making diagnoses and treating patients. MDDS systems enable doctors to manage the overwhelming amount of medical information, increase diagnostic accuracy, and make medically and financially optimal treatment decisions. Primarily, MDDS systems offer possible diagnoses in response to the doctor's input of history, clinical findings, and test results. They can also present treatment options, remind doctors of the need for screening tests or prevention information, calculate drug dosages, and warn against potential adverse reactions or complications. Fears of interference with patient rapport, loss of physician autonomy, expanse of legal liability, and the belief that it is too difficult or not worthwhile to work with an MDDS system are not justified. Several MDDS and reminder systems are described and evaluated.

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Author's Abstract: COPYRIGHT American Medical Assoc

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ough temporarily unavailable for pediatrics, has been well studied.[21] The MEDITEL Pediatric Diagnostic System (MEDITEL-PEDS) can diagnose 1735 conditions using 650 findings. The program uses a combination of Bayesian mathematical logic and rules to determine the relation between a patient's findings and the set of disorders in its knowledge base. MEDITEL-PEDS generates a list of possible diagnoses sorted their relative goodness of fit to the patient's signs and symptoms. MEDITEL-PEDS also displays an important finding ratio. These two numbers help the clinician determine which diagnoses are worth pursuing. For example, a diagnosis might have a high relative goodness of fit, but with an important finding ratio of 3:10, it will not explain seven of the patient's findings. It is up to the clinician to determine if the diagnosis is still worth considering. Some preliminary evaluations with MEDITEL-PEDS suggest that it lists in its differential the diagnosis eventually assigned to the patient in 80% to 90% of cases.[19] Another study evaluated the effect of MEDITEL-PEDS on the outcomes of patients who were admitted without a diagnosis. In the subset of patients whose diagnoses were still not established 48 hours after admissi
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 8445
Approximate Pages = 34 (250 words per page)

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