May we support your decision?
Expert systems to support medical decision-making have so far achieved few successes. Current technical developments, however, may overcome some of the limitations. Although there are several theoretical currents in medical artificial intelligence, there are signs of them converging. Meanwhile, decision support systems, which set themselves more modest goals than replicating or improving on clinicians' expertise, have come into routine use in places where an adequate electronic patient record exists. They may also be finding a wider role, assisting in the implementation of clinical practice guidelines. There is, however, still much uncertainty about the kinds of decision support that doctors and other health care professionals are likely to want or accept.
Gordon
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Medical Software Research and Development Team, Royal Brompton Hospital, London, UK.
D001499:Bayes Theorem; D020000:Decision Support Systems, Clinical / Q000592:standards*; D005103:Expert Systems; D006801:Humans; D016347:Medical Records Systems, Computerized; D017410:Practice Guidelines as Topic; D006113:United Kingdom