Method and apparatus for automated medical diagnosis using decision tree analysis
First Claim
1. An interactive coomputerized system for performing a differential dermatopathological diagnosis of a biopsy based on characteristics of said biopsy product, said system comprisingan output means for presenting a set of plurality of selected histopathological changes to an operator;
- an input means for entering operator selected responses;
a memory means for storing a hierarchical data base, said data base comprised of a plurality of downwardly linked files, each file comprised of a header record and a plurality of data records, said operator selected response corresponding to one of said data records, said header record comprised of a file identification field and a field for containing the number of the data records located in the file, and each said data record comprised of a linking identifier field and a data field, said data field containing a histopathological change when said identifier field contains an entry of a file identifier that points to a data record located below in the hierarchy and containing a differential diagnosis when said identifier field does not contain said file identifier; and
processor means under a programmed control for receiving operator entered responses, for responding to the contents of the identifier field of said operator selected record for retrieving the linked file stored elsewhere in said memory means, and for providing the data stored in said linked file to said output means.
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Abstract
An interactive method for performing a differential medical diagnosis utilizing a programmed computer system and a stored data base. In one particular embodiment, the method is for making a dermatopathological diagnosis based on operator selections from data files sequentially presented from the broadest scope to the narrowest scope. The data base is stored in a forwardly and backwardly linked hierarchical array of data files. If the data base were graphically arranged according to the linkages, it would appear in the form of a decision tree having a plurality of levels, each level encompassing the entire subject matter of dermatopathology. Each data file in the data base corresponds to a node of the decision tree and the records in the data file correspond to the branches.
177 Citations
13 Claims
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1. An interactive coomputerized system for performing a differential dermatopathological diagnosis of a biopsy based on characteristics of said biopsy product, said system comprising
an output means for presenting a set of plurality of selected histopathological changes to an operator; -
an input means for entering operator selected responses; a memory means for storing a hierarchical data base, said data base comprised of a plurality of downwardly linked files, each file comprised of a header record and a plurality of data records, said operator selected response corresponding to one of said data records, said header record comprised of a file identification field and a field for containing the number of the data records located in the file, and each said data record comprised of a linking identifier field and a data field, said data field containing a histopathological change when said identifier field contains an entry of a file identifier that points to a data record located below in the hierarchy and containing a differential diagnosis when said identifier field does not contain said file identifier; and processor means under a programmed control for receiving operator entered responses, for responding to the contents of the identifier field of said operator selected record for retrieving the linked file stored elsewhere in said memory means, and for providing the data stored in said linked file to said output means. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5)
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6. An interactive computerized system for performing a differential dermatopathological diagnosis of a biopsy based on characteristics of said biopsy product, said system comprising
an output means for presenting a set of a plurality of selected histopathological changes to an operator; -
an input means for entering operator selected responses; a memory means for storing a hierarchical data base, said data base comprised of a plurality of downwardly linked files, each file comprised of a header record and a plurality of data records, said operator selected response corresponding to one of said data records, said header record comprised of a file identification field and each said data record comprised of a linking identifier field and a data field, said data field containing a histopathological change when said identifier field contains an entry of a file identifier that points to a data record located below in the hierarchy and containing a differential diagnosis when said identifier field does not contain said file identifier; processor means under a programmed control for receiving operator entered responses, for responding to the contents of the identifier field of said operator selected record for retrieving the linked file stored elsewhere in said memory means, and for providing the data stored in said linked file to said output means; and wherein said identifier field of a data record containing a differential diagnosis is empty and said processor means detects said empty field and provides an indication on said output means that the displayed data is diagnosis data. - View Dependent Claims (7, 8, 9, 10)
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11. An interactive computerized system for performing a differential dermatopathological diagnosis of a biopsy based on characteristics of said biopsy product, said system comprising
an output means for presenting a set of a plurality of selected histopathological changes to an operator; -
an input means for entering operator selected responses; a memory means for storing a hierarchical data base, said data base comprised of a plurality of downwardly linked files, each file comprised of a header record and a plurality of data records, said operator selected response corresponding to one of said data records, said header record comprised of a file identification field and each said data record comprised of a linking identifier field and a data field, said data field containing a histopathological change when said identifier field contains an entry of a file identifier that points to a data record located below in the hierarchy and containing a differential diagnosis when said identifier field does not contain said file identifier and said data field including a preferred diagnosis field which when filled contains the identification of a preferred diagnosis stored in said data field of the next downwardly linked file; and processor means under a programmed control for receiving operator entered responses, for responding to the contents of the identifier field of said operator selected record for retrieving the linked file stored elsewhere in said memory means, and for providing the data stored in said linked file to said output means. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13)
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Specification