Expert Systems Applied to - Essay Example

Integrating an Expert System in a Work Environment An expert system can be defined as an artificial program developed using a set of instructions and rules that evaluate and analyze information provided by the program’s user concerning a particular subject matter in a bid to provide a recommended course of action or solutions. Under normal conditions, expert systems look at the problems that would ideally be tackled by experts and professionals in the respective fields. For this reason, expert systems require access to a significantly abundant knowledge base and an equally adept reasoning mechanism in looking to analyze complex scenarios and problems.

Expert systems consist of a number of components such as the knowledge base, the inference engine and the user interface. The knowledge base contains all the data and information collected from the domain whereas the inference engine manipulates this information in looking to find a recommended course of action. The User interface provides the platform through which the system user can interact with the program. Integrating Expert Systems in Healthcare EnvironmentThe role of artificial intelligence (AI) in medicine primarily focuses on developing programs that can carry out diagnostic functions and suggest therapeutic recommendations.

They are based on representative models of ailment entities in relation to factors such as their clinical manifestation and their ramifications on patient factors. Knowledge based systems are commonly used in clinical situations since they can withhold a vast knowledge base especially with regards to a particularly defined task. For this reason, the use of expert systems in the medical field applies in various functions within a hospital. For instance, expert systems can be used for generating reminders and alerts in real-time scenarios where they are attached to monitors as indicators used in monitoring changes in the condition of patients.

In relatively acute cases, they can be used to scan lab test outcomes or medication prescriptions and generate reminders and alerts through e-mail or text message systems. Expert systems can also be used for diagnostic aid where the patient data can be checked against a system’s knowledge base to try and come up with accurate diagnosis in cases where the case of a patient is complex or unique or the diagnostician is relatively inexperienced (Wai et al. par. 63). An example of one such system is DXplain; a clinical decision support mechanism used to aid in diagnosis by looking at a set of symptoms, signs and laboratory results and generating a ranked list of possible diagnoses while at the same time providing justification for the various possibilities and recommending further investigations.

The system has a database consisting of over 4,500 clinical symptoms that are linked with more than 2,000 ailments from which the crude probabilities are derived. The inference engine of this system works by analyzing the data entered by the user and generating probabilities based on this data with regards to the most likely diagnosis for the patient’s condition. One of the fundamental benefits of this system is that it adopts a stand-alone form and can be used as a server that is easily available over the internet.

Through these platforms, both patients and practitioners can benefit from the system regardless of their location. The knowledge base of this system together with its user interface is subjected to continuous improvements further strengthening its capacity as a clinical decision support system. However, in using expert systems in the medical field, it is vital that significant attention be paid to would be users to prevent a scenario where patients seek to diagnose their own ailments using this system (Musen, Shahar and Shortliffe 720).

Works CitedMusen, Mark, et al. Biomedical informatics computer applications in health care and biomedicine. Ed. Shortliffe, Edward H., and James J. Cimino. New York, NY: Springer, 2006. Print.Wai, Kiong, Abd Rahman, Mohd Zaiyadi, and Azwan Aziz. "Expert System in Real World Applications." Generation5 -. 29 May 2005. Web. 6 Feb. 2015. .