title: Intelligent database generated occupational questionnaire system.
abstract: Obtaining an adequate occupational history requires special expertise to "ask the right questions" that are relevant to a particular patient's specific health conditions and potential exposures. This article describes a way to systematically accomplish this by means of a computer system that can overcome limited availability of necessary clinical occupational health expertise. The Intelligent Questionnaire system is a computer-based system for generating case-specific questionnaires about the influence of work on respiratory disease. Intelligent Questionnaire includes three databases: Questions, Responses, and Calls (clues to identify questions). The Questionnaire also arranges questions in a logical manner and provides a customized data entry screen for each subject. This approach provides primary practitioners with expertise on a case-by-case basis. It also facilitates occupational health surveillance because it allows acquiring detailed case-specific information in a systematic fashion. A computer-based system can facilitate obtaining occupational histories with high specificity and consistency without depending on general availability of a human occupational health clinical expertise.
authors.affiliation: University of California, Los Angeles 90024, USA. pharber@ucla.edu
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Harber
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Merz
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Lam
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Yuan
authors.forename: J E
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Parker
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Chen
mesh_terms: D001185:Artificial Intelligence; D019992:Databases as Topic; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D016272:Occupational Health; D012140:Respiratory Tract Diseases; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires