Abstract
This is a view related to automation of diagnosis and therapy, written by an engineer in the field of computer. He considers why computers are not so generally used in the medical field as in the other fields. The reasons cited are : 1) the biomedical mechanism of human being is not yet fully clear, 2) it is very difficult to simulate by computer the thinking process of the doctor, especially the pattern recognition is not easy for the present conventional computer, 3) the electronics-oriented person and the physicians are speaking different languages and 4) there are diverse understandings about the word “diagnosis”.
The author hypothesizes the process of diagnosis by a doctor from the computer side, and considers the role of medical questioning, demonstrating the system with an example of the flow-chart.
He also introduces some actual examples of trials toward automation of diagnosis, therapy and patient care, mainly in the United States.
