title: Computer aided test selection (CATS) for nuclear medicine--a prototype system for renal investigations.
abstract: An expert system for renal test selection in nuclear medicine has been developed as the first stage of a collaborative project on test selection in nuclear medicine. The stages of knowledge elicitation and knowledge representation were addressed by means of a questionnaire which was completed by five experts in the field of renal nuclear medicine. A flow chart was developed from the responses and implemented using a commercially available expert system shell (Crystal 4.5). A menu specifying clinical problems, for which renal nuclear medicine is useful, is displayed to the user who is prompted for a choice. Specific aspects of the chosen problem are then shown and again a choice is requested. Selected tests, in order of expert preference, are displayed and further information on any of these is available, if required, on selection from a menu subdivided into categories such as patient preparation, preliminary investigations, etc. The system provides cross-referencing to other areas of investigation and is currently being evaluated using a structured approach commonly employed in the assessment of user interfaces.
authors.affiliation: Department of Nuclear Medicine, Royal Naval Hospital Haslar, Gosport, UK.
authors.forename: A S
authors.initials: AS
authors.lastname: Houston
authors.forename: W B
authors.initials: WB
authors.lastname: Tindale
mesh_terms: D003658:Decision Making, Computer-Assisted; D005103:Expert Systems; D006801:Humans; D007674:Kidney Diseases / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D007677:Kidney Function Tests; D009683:Nuclear Medicine / Q000295:instrumentation*; D011877:Radionuclide Imaging; D012984:Software; D014584:User-Computer Interface