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Methods Inf Med 2001; 40(03): 213-220
DOI: 10.1055/s-0038-1634168
Original Article
Schattauer GmbH

A Prospective Evaluation of the Medical Consultation System CADIAG-II/RHEUMA in a Rheumatological Outpatient Clinic

H. Leitich
1   Department of Medical Computer Sciences, Section of Medical Expert and Knowledge-Based Systems, University of Vienna Medical School, Austria
,
H. P. Kiener
2   Department of Internal Medicine III, Section of Rheumatology, University of Vienna Medical School, Austria
,
G. Kolarz
3   Clinic for Rheumatic Diseases of the Social Insurance Company for Trade and Industry, Baden, Austria
4   Institute for Rheumatology in Baden, Austria
,
C. Schuh
1   Department of Medical Computer Sciences, Section of Medical Expert and Knowledge-Based Systems, University of Vienna Medical School, Austria
,
W. Graninger
2   Department of Internal Medicine III, Section of Rheumatology, University of Vienna Medical School, Austria
,
K.-P. Adlassnig
1   Department of Medical Computer Sciences, Section of Medical Expert and Knowledge-Based Systems, University of Vienna Medical School, Austria
› Author Affiliations
Further Information

Publication History

Publication Date:
07 February 2018 (online)

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Abstract:

To evaluate the performance of CADIAG-II/RHEUMA as consultant in the primary evaluation of patients visiting a rheumatological outpatient clinic, a CADIAG-II/RHEUMA consultation was done for 54 patients and the list of generated diagnostic hypotheses was compared to each clinical discharge diagnosis. For 26 of a total of 126 rheumatological discharge diagnoses, no matching CADIAG-II/RHEUMA diagnosis was available. 94% of all other discharge diagnoses were found in the list of CADIAG-II/RHEUMA hypotheses, 82% among the first third of the list of hypotheses and 48% among the first five hypotheses. We identified the following factors limiting the ability of CADIAG-II/RHEUMA to generate a comprehensive and correctly ranked list of diagnostic hypotheses: (1) a large percentage of patients with early stages of not clearly identified rheumatological conditions; (2) the limited number of CADIAG-II/RHEUMA diagnoses compared to the large number of known rheumatological conditions; (3) the fact that rheumato-logical diseases are rarely characterized by a single pathognomonic feature but are usually diagnosed by combinations of rather unspecific findings.

Keywords:

Fuzzy Set Theory - Expert Systems - Rheumatology - Evaluation - CADIAG-II
 

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