Twelve years' experience of computer-aided diagnosis in a district general hospital.
This paper describes experience in a modern district general hospital with a small desktop system for computer-aided diagnosis of acute abdominal pain, over a 12-year period involving 5512 cases. When compared with a baseline year (1973) in which unaided performance was monitored, during an initial study period (1974-76) the diagnostic accuracy of junior staff rose by between 10 and 15%. This higher performance level was then maintained for a decade (1976-86) despite changes in staff. The perforation rate among appendicitis cases fell from 27% to 12.5%, accompanied by a smaller fall in negative laparotomy rates. The saving in surgical bednights devoted to acute abdominal pain was approximately 15%, and the notional cost of resources saved during the first 6 years of operation was 120,000 pounds. Other hospitals have shown--in the short term--benefits similar to those obtained at Airedale District General Hospital. The long-term benefits of the system at Airedale reinforce the conclusions of the earlier short-term trials that a comparable system should probably be offered to all DGHs in the UK, not as an exercise in 'artificial intelligence' but as an effective continuing stimulus to good clinical practice.
McAdam
W A
WA
Airedale District General Hospital, West Yorkshire.
Brock
B M
BM
Armitage
T
T
Davenport
P
P
Chan
M
M
de Dombal
F T
FT
D015746:Abdominal Pain / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000191:economics; D000208:Acute Disease; D001064:Appendicitis; D003365:Costs and Cost Analysis; D003625:Data Collection; D003936:Diagnosis, Computer-Assisted / Q000191:economics / Q000592:standards; D004739:England; D006295:Health Resources / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006767:Hospitals, District; D006769:Hospitals, General; D006779:Hospitals, Public; D006801:Humans; D007416:Intestinal Perforation; D007902:Length of Stay; D008838:Microcomputers; D012422:Rupture, Spontaneous