title: Exploring subjective vs. objective issues in the validation of computer-based critiquing advice.
abstract: Evaluation is an important part of the development of computer-based medical expert systems. Such evaluation may be particularly difficult when judging a critiquing system which responds to a proposed management strategy with a discussion of the advisability of that approach. DxCON is an expert system which produces a prose critique discussing the radiologic workup of obstructive jaundice. This paper describes DxCON, and its experimental validation by three independent judges. A central component of the validation involved allowing the judges to react to the system's advice in a quite flexible, unstructured fashion. This project provides a case study of how subjective issues impact both the design and implementation of a validation of a medical expert system whose output is explanatory prose.
authors.affiliation: Mount Sinai Medical Center, New York, NY 10029.
authors.forename: M A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Rothschild
authors.forename: H A
authors.initials: HA
authors.lastname: Swett
authors.forename: P R
authors.initials: PR
authors.lastname: Fisher
authors.forename: G G
authors.initials: GG
authors.lastname: Weltin
authors.forename: P L
authors.initials: PL
authors.lastname: Miller
mesh_terms: D002779:Cholestasis / Q000175:diagnosis*; D005103:Expert Systems; D006801:Humans; D012984:Software; D012986:Software Validation