Decision-Support System for a Doctor on Duty in an Emergency Room—Approach to Supporting Differential Diagnosis—

Abstract

 We have developed a decision-support system that assists a doctor on duty in an emergency room in diagnosing diseases more efficiently. This system classifies serious diseases in three steps: (1) Diagnose the disease(s) based on the patient’s primary complaint; (2) Classify the diseases according to probability using the results of clinical examinations, and (3) Evaluate the results of clinical laboratory tests for other possible diseases. In an evaluation of the prototype system revealed the following: (a) The system correctly classified diseases in all 90 patients; (b) The system could differentiate diseases 1.2 times more efficiently than conventional methods. The system is very simple and convenient for the doctor to use.