title: Development and evaluation of an expert system for the diagnosis of child autism.
abstract: This paper presents the development of an expert system for the diagnosis of child autism and discusses potential benefits of its implementation in a clinical environment. The development of the expert system was based on a diagnostic algorithm supported by a developmental scale (PEDS) and a diagnostic tool of autism (CARS). Twelve nurses who work in pediatric hospital were asked to use the expert system for a session of 30 minutes and were asked to assess its usefulness, usability and diagnostic value. The majority of nurses agree that it is a useful and promising diagnostic tool for the clinical practice and for the identification of potential child autism cases.
authors.affiliation: Health Informatics Laboratory, University of Athens, Athens, Greece. pash_lialiou@hotmail.com
authors.forename: Pashalina
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Lialiou
authors.forename: Dimitrios
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Zikos
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Mantas
mesh_terms: D001321:Autistic Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis*; D002648:Child; D003936:Diagnosis, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*; D005103:Expert Systems; D006115:Greece; D006801:Humans; D009722:Nurse Practitioners / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D009733:Nursing Diagnosis / Q000379:methods* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity