A CONTROLLED EVALUATION OF DIAGNOSTIC CRITERIA IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF A RHEUMATOLOGY EXPERT SYSTEM

Abstract
As an intermediate stage in the development of an expert system to support undergraduate teaching in rheumatology, a decision tree incorporating the diagnostic criteria to be used in the expert system was produced by a team of rheumatologists. In a controlled trial, 119 final-year medical students each diagnosed 10 rheumatology cases, drawn from a pool of 96 cases, with or without the aid of the decision tree. Students who used the decision tree correctly diagnosed the following conditions more frequently than the control group: polymyalgia rheumatica (pppppppp<0.001).

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