title: Artificial intelligence--its use in nephrology.
abstract: Artificial intelligence techniques and expert systems are graduating from research laboratories to enter many human domains of activities. However, initial expectations of the seventies have been transformed with time to a more sober reality. Starting from examples in nephrology, this paper tries to give a balanced view of this new technology. Justification, indication and limitation of present expert systems are discussed as regards their possible goals. The respective roles of the experts and knowledge engineers are described. The need to integrate the artificial intelligence approach into present patient database management systems in order to build up expert database systems is evaluated.
mesh_terms: D003628:Database Management Systems; D003663:Decision Trees; D005103:Expert Systems; D005544:Forecasting; D006801:Humans; D009398:Nephrology / Q000193:education / Q000379:methods; D012106:Research