Computerized automated pulmonary disease diagnosis

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Title Computerized automated pulmonary disease diagnosis
Publication Type thesis
School or College School of Medicine
Department Biomedical Informatics
Author Gerard, Martha Jane
Date 1984-12
Description This thesis details the design and implementation of a computerized system which generates a list of 5 differential diagnoses on patients with suspected pulmonary disease. A probabilistic diagnostic model, sequential applications of Bayes' Theorem, was used to calculate a series of likelihoods that a patient would have each of 29 different pulmonary diseases. This approach to automated medical diagnosis was dependent on the facilities provided by the HELP system at LDS Hospital, a 550 bed tertiary care hospital located in Salt Lake City, Utah. After development and debugging of the medical logic, a retrospective study on 69 hospitalized patients with previously diagnosed pulmonary disease was conducted to measure the success of this system. The predictive logic was used to calculate the 5 most likely diseases for each patient. This differential diagnosis list contained the appropriate discharge diagnosis in 55 of 69 patients (80%). The medical logic (total 29 disease modules) yielded a sensitivity of 80% and specificity of 97%. In a study of a subgroup of 18 patients having multiple pulmonary diseases the system correctly classified all pulmonary diseases present in 33% (6/18) of the cases. The overall sensitivity of this subgroup of patients with multiple pulmonary diseases was 64% and the specificity was 91%. As judged from this preliminary study of the diagnostic logic, the method proved remarkably robust. These promising results have led to the installation of this system in a clinical setting. It will be used in a prospective manner to study patients who have chest radiographs performed in the Radiology Department at LDS Hospital.
Type Text
Publisher University of Utah
Subject Lungs - Diseases - Diagnosis; Medicine - Data processing
Subject MESH Diagnosis, Computer-Assisted; Software; Lung Diseases
Dissertation Institution University of Utah
Dissertation Name MS
Language eng
Relation is Version of Digital reproduction of "Computerized automated pulmonary disease diagnosis." Spencer S. Eccles Health Sciences Library.
Rights Management © Martha Jane Gerard.
Format application/pdf
Format Medium application/pdf
Format Extent 1,473,250 bytes
Identifier undthes,3853
Source Original University of Utah Spencer S. Eccles Health Sciences Library (no longer available)
Master File Extent 1,473,304 bytes
ARK ark:/87278/s6xg9svv
Setname ir_etd
ID 190769
Reference URL https://collections.lib.utah.edu/ark:/87278/s6xg9svv
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