Human and computer-aided diagnosis of abdominal pain: further report with emphasis on performance of clinicians.
This paper reports a controlled trial of human and computer-aided diagnosis in a series of 552 patients with acute abdominal pain. The overall diagnostic accuracy of the computer-aided system was 91.5% and that of the senior clinician to see each case was 81.2%. However, the clinician's diagnostic performance improved markedly during the period of the trial. The proportion of appendices which perforated before operation fell from 36% to 4% during the trial, and the negative laparotomy rate dropped sharply. After the trial closed in August 1972 these figures reverted towards their pretrial levels.It is suggested that while computer-aided diagnosis is a valuable direct adjunct to the clinician dealing with the "acute abdomen," he may also benefit in the short-term from the constant feedback he receives and from the disciplines and constraints involved in communicating with the computer.
D000005:Abdomen; D000006:Abdomen, Acute / Q000175:diagnosis; D001064:Appendicitis / Q000175:diagnosis; D002764:Cholecystitis / Q000175:diagnosis; D003936:Diagnosis, Computer-Assisted; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D004238:Diverticulitis / Q000175:diagnosis; D004381:Duodenal Ulcer / Q000175:diagnosis; D006801:Humans; D007415:Intestinal Obstruction / Q000175:diagnosis; D010146:Pain / Q000175:diagnosis*; D010195:Pancreatitis / Q000175:diagnosis