title: Methods to evaluate and develop the decision process in the selection of tests.
abstract: An objective, comprehensive method is described for organizing medical information that determines the most useful and sufficient test sets for separating diseases. The system is purposive, i.e., both its means and ends are known and tests results can be correlated with patient outcomes. The method is based on levels of information, probability and uncertainty and on measurement of comprehension and effectiveness. As the number of diseases in the system increases, the probability of their message sources decreases, which results in an increase in uncertainty. Resolution of uncertainty results in the diagnosis. Methods of reducing computational time are presented in this article.
authors.affiliation: University of New Mexico, Albuquerque.
authors.forename: E W
authors.initials: EW
authors.lastname: Rypka
mesh_terms: D019411:Clinical Laboratory Techniques; D003625:Data Collection; D003662:Decision Theory; D006801:Humans; D007257:Information Theory; D008433:Mathematics; D011786:Quality Control; D013223:Statistics as Topic