Artificial Intelligence and Contact Dermatitis: The CODEX/E System

Abstract

The Contact Dermatitis Index or CODEX consists primarily of data on patients, products, and their ingredients that we began compiling in 1978 to form a computerized information system. These data bases are used to provide patients with lists of all the topical pharmaceutical products containing their allergens, to help dermatologists identify potential allergens and avoid prescription errors, and to assist scientists, authorities, and the industry by means of reports and epidemiological studies. Based on this system, we developed the CODEX/E, an expert system that has been operational in our contact dermatitis unit since September 1989. The dermatologist preparing the contact-allergy anamnesis and testing program is given on-line support in the determination of possible allergens. The primary rules are based on sex, lesion location, exposure, profession/hobbies, and topical pharmaceuticals used. The secondary rules are based on the nature of the lesions, cosmetic usage, literature data, and, are used to detect new trends data from the last 1,000 patients examined. The contact-allergy expert can also introduce “user rules.” The rules are derived from the Codex Patient File, which contains information on some 12,000 patients; the Codex Product File, which contains the complete composition of over 7,000 pharmaceutical products intended for application on the skin and mucous membranes and information on compiled on some 500 cosmetic products; and the Codex Raw Material File, which contains all the names of all the ingredients used in the manufacture of these pharmaceutical products to which an automatically updated allergenicity score has been assigned.