A Framework for the Application of Knowledge Technology to the Management of Diseases

Abstract

Medical diagnosis and therapy constitute a network of inter-related processes. The conventional method of medical
diagnosis and therapy of diseases involve the state space search of medical knowledge of diseases and patient
history, which could be combinatorially explosive. This paper presents the report of the experimental study of
an intelligent, interactive, user friendly knowledge-based system, which does a stepwise analysis of the patient’s
complaints, filtering the cognitive and emotional elements to be able to make inferences. It applies both forward
and backward chaining in making inferences concerning the management of the diseases. A case study of the
system is carried out using some tropical diseases. It is believed that the research will serve as a good contribution
towards the much desired tropical medical informatics.