Semi-automatic generation of medical tele-expert opinion for primary care physician.
OBJECTIVE
A computer-based system has been developed for the generation of medical expert opinions on the insulin-resistance syndrome, based on clinical data obtained from primary care physicians.


METHODS
An expert opinion for each patient was generated by using a decision tree for entering individual text modules and by adding optional free text. The expert opinions were returned by e-mail, telefax or by ordinary mail.


RESULTS
1389 primary care physician sent anonymous data sets and requested expert opinions for a total of 3768 patients. Through the set up of a rule-based system an automation of the generation of the expert opinions could be achieved and the generation time dropped from initially 40 minutes to less than 5 minutes at the end.


CONCLUSIONS
By using predefined text modules and a rule based system, a large number of medical expert opinions can be generated with relatively few additional resources.
Biermann
E
E
Institut für Diabetesforschung, Kölnerplatz 1, D-80804 München, Germany. Eberhard.Biermann@LRZ.uni-muenchen.de
Rihl
J
J
Schenker
M
M
Standl
E
E
D003625:Data Collection; D020000:Decision Support Systems, Clinical; D003920:Diabetes Mellitus / Q000503:physiopathology; D005858:Germany; D006801:Humans; D007333:Insulin Resistance; D016347:Medical Records Systems, Computerized; D011320:Primary Health Care / Q000458:organization & administration*; D019114:Remote Consultation