AN INTELLIGENT TOOL FOR COLLECTING AND PROCESSING MEDICAL INFORMATION

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.0 Introduction

This chapter presents the introduction to intelligent tools for collecting and processing medical information. It presents the introduction, theoretical background, statement of the problem, aim and objectives of the study, significance of the study, scope of the study, organization of the research and definition of terms

The use of the computer system for collecting and processing medical information is very vital. For instance, detecting diseases at early stage can enable the medical diagnosis officers to overcome and treat them appropriately. Identifying the treatment accurately depends on the method that is used in diagnosing the diseases. A Diagnosis expert system (DExS) can help a great deal in identifying those diseases and describing methods of treatment to be carried out taking into account the user capability in order to deal and interact with expert system easily and clearly. Present expert system uses inference rules and plays an important role that will provide certain methods of diagnosis for treatment.

1.1 Theoretical Background

Computer-based methods are increasingly used to improve the quality of medical services. Artificial Intelligence (AI) is the area of computer science focusing on creating expert machines that can engage on behaviors that humans consider intelligent. An expert system is a system that employs human knowledge captured in a computer to solve problems that ordinarily require human expertise [2]. Expert system seeks and utilizes relevant information from their human users and from available knowledge bases in order to make recommendations [3].

Knowledge acquisition: The data and knowledge of DExS are collected from different sources. The first primary source is the medical knowledge of expert doctors. The second source is from specialized databases, books and a few electronic websites.

Knowledge representation: The proposed system is rule-based system and makes inferences with symbols, which require translation of a diseases specific knowledge in the standard symbolic form. In the first phase, the medical background of diseases is recorded through the creation of personal interview with doctors and patients. In the second phase, a set of rules is created where each rule contains in IF part that has the symptoms and in THEN part that has the disease that should be realized. The inference engine (forward reasoning) is a mechanism through which rules are selected to be fired. It is based on a pattern matching algorithm whose main purpose is to associate the facts (input data) with applicable rules from the rule base. Finally, the diseases are produced by the inference engine. This expert system then defines the symptoms for diseases. DExS System can be used in consultation since it shows quickly the diagnosis and in addition, it offers explanations of the obtained results, being very helpful to the professional. With the expert system, the user can interact with a computer to solve a certain problem. This can occur because the expert system can store heuristic knowledge.

The proposed system performs many functions. It will conclude the diagnosis based on answers of the user to specific question that the system asks the user. The questions provide the system for explanation for the symptoms of the patient that helps the expert system for diagnosis the disease by inference engine. It stores the facts and the conclusion of the inference of the system, and the user, for each case, in database. It processes the database in order to extract rules, which completes the knowledge base.

1.2 Statement of the Problem

The following identified problems necessitated this study:

1. Manual method of collecting and processing medical information
2. Accumulation of paper files and wastage of useful office space.
3. Inability to instantly get medical reports of patients.
4. Absence of computer based tools to manage medical information of patients.