Developing an Appropriate and Affordable Expert System for Medical Diagnosis (ESMD) in Developing Countries

Abstract

Bringing intelligent healthcare informatics to bear on the dual problems of reducing healthcare costs and improving quality and outcomes is a challenge even in countries with a reasonably developed technology infrastructure. In the developing countries, like Nigeria, introduction of intelligent healthcare informatics then becomes constrained by considerations not only of affordability but also of appropriateness of the innovation. This research sets out to develop an appropriate and affordable expert system for medical diagnosis ESMD in developing countries. ESMD is designed to enable clinicians to identify diseases and describe methods of treatment to be carried out taking into account the user capability. The ESMD was designed using the C Language Integrated Production System (CLIPS). CLIPS is rule-based expert system tool, which means that knowledge is represented in rules, based on experience. ESMD shell has four modules: the user interface, the explanation system, the inference engine and the knowledge base editor. The knowledge base of ESMD was organized among several clinical signs, symptoms and features associated to drug therapy. The prototype of the ESMD was ready for use after nine months. The system does many random questions in order to enable clinicians make diagnosis and suggest therapy. The system is user-friendly and presented good time-response to give therapy advice. The knowledge base is editable and can be used to generate personal configuration based on population characteristics.