RHINOS: A Consultation System for Diagnoses of Headache and Facial Pain

Abstract

How do doctors make diagnoses based on their medical knowledge? In this paper a hypothesis is proposed concerning a diagnostic method used by doctors . The knowledge for the hypothesis has been provided by an authority In the field of medicine, and a diagnost ic system for headache and facial pain, named RHINOS , has been Implemented using the programming language Prolog, which Is operative on an NEC PC-9801 microcomputer . Because It Is operative on a microcomputer, RHINOS is portable and readily available . RHINOS has four kinds of rules : two levels of rules perform as forward links from manifestations to diseases . It also has disease- images that act as backward links from manifestations to diseases. It also has disease-images that act as backward links from diseases to manifestations. Through harmonious use of this knowledge, RHINOS makes not only single diagnosis but also makes different i al-d i agnoses . It also di agnoses cases of complications of two or more diseases. The disease-Image link made this possible. RHINOS was used to diagnose 50 patients and 82% of Its di agnostic results were equal to those made by a specialist , 16% were close to those made by a specialist . T his shows that RHINOS is capable of diagnosing patients in almost the same way as a specialist .