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Conceptual models for diagnostic reasoning proposed in the medical literature are presented to stimulate discussion about the issue of the appropriateness of probabilistic knowledge-based systems for medical diagnosis. Evidence is presented to corroborate the authors' view that diagnosis is a problem-solving task, rather than a decision-making task. In the authors' opinion, probabilistic reasoning is better suited to situations dealing with choices for clinical intervention, rather than to those dealing with [...]

The overarching informatics grand challenge facing society is the creation of knowledge management systems that can acquire, conserve, organize, retrieve, display, and distribute what is known today in a manner that informs and educates, facilitates the discovery and creation of new knowledge, and contributes to the health and welfare of the planet. At one time the private, national, and university libraries of the world collectively constituted the memory of society's [...]

To explore the software design issues involved in implementing an operational information sources map (ISM) knowledge base (KB) and system of navigational tools that can help medical users access network-based information sources relevant to a biomedical question.

Evaluate the performance of a continuous-speech interface to a decision support system.

Develop a continuous-speech interface that allows flexible input of clinical findings into a medical diagnostic application.

Develop a framework for collections-based access to networked information sources that addresses the problem of location-dependent access to information sources.

In an attempt to enhance the completeness and clarity of clinical narratives, the authors developed a general formalism for the entry of structured data. The objective of this study was to gain insight into the expressive power of the formalism through its use for reporting in endoscopy.

Research is producing increasing amounts of important new evidence for health care, but there is a large gap between what this evidence shows can be done and the care that most patients actually receive. An important reason for this gap is the extensive processing that evidence requires before application. This article discusses a three-step model for bridging research evidence to management of clinical problems: getting the evidence straight, formulating evidence-based [...]