Title: An approach to medical diagnosis based on conceptual structures
Abstract: The power of an experienced medical diagnostician seens to us to arise from a knowledge organization whose very structure helps keep the combinatorial growth of processing under control. Thin structure mirrors the deep conceptual structure of the field. We propose a knowledge representation scheme called conceptual structures, which organizes knowledge in the form of production rules or nore complex procedures In such a way that they are accessed and used as needed. This structure is doninantly hierarchical, the successors of a conceptual node standing for subconcepts which refine that concept. Associated with each concept is a set of procedures (experts) which attempt to apply the relevant knowledge to the case at hand; this might include turninc over control to selected subconcepts for more detailed analysis. Thus, abstractly, the conccntual structure organizes the invocation of procedures available to the diagnostician. The calling of a special 1st by a physician is skin, we think, to control transfer to a subconcept in the cognitive structure of a diagnostician during problem solving; the difference is in the level of detail of the cognitive map. In this Paper, sore principles governing the design of conceptual structures are presented. We apply the ideas to the design of MDX, a system to perform diagnoses in a syndrone called Cholestasis, and discuss the performance of the system.
Publication Year: 1979
Publication Date: 1979-08-20
Language: en
Type: article
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Cited By Count: 71
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