Expert Systems In Health Care Essay, Research Paper

A case referring to the beneficial use of the expert systems in the health sector was the attempt of the LDS Hospital in Salt Lake city,Utah to build the most complex artificial intelligence system ever created according to the words of DR David Classen.Its name was AIC or Antibiotic Computer Consultant and it was part of HELP(Health Evaluation through Logical Processing), which was LDS s hospital information system. The latter was existed, before the implementation of the Expert System.

The role of AIC was to help doctors determine proper antibiotic treatment for specific patients.Achieving the specific purpose,the Expert System followed the above stages:

1) The doctor turned to the system with information on the infection type and site, and also identified the patient to the computer.

2) The system determined the pathogens, which are likely to have caused the infection.

3) The software examined the patient s medical records( through the HELP information system) and searched for similar cases nationwide.

4) Finally, it displayed the five most likely antibiotic regimens to be effective and the cost of the prescription for each one.

Altough,the system was extremely rewarding and expanded to include other cases involving antibiotics, some criticisms were made against it. It was stated that the system was unwieldy and that physicians had to enter much information, which was useless.

Of course, the best answer came straightly from the physicians, who highlighted many important benefits of the AIC. The 88% of them believed that the use of AIC was very simple and they would recommend it to other colleagues. Another 85% stated that the program improved their selection of antibiotics, and 81% agreed that it enhanced patient care. Concerning its usability, doctors access into the system 3 times a day.

Eventually, regarding AIC s efficacy, a study in the medical journal Archives of Internal Medicine suggested that doctors selected the best treatment in 775 of the cases, but the computer achieved a 94% correct rating. Therefore, the AIC supported the judgement of the doctors with useful additional information, so as to be able to take better and faster decisions.