Building two medical databanks

Two medical databanks are described: one for poison control centres, and one for gastroenterology. They include a diagnostic system built up since 1961 with logistic and statistical trial solutions, barring symptoms and the addition of not-found symptoms in the first data processing of the files. Up to 40 questions are answered by the databank concerning poisons. Around 60000 items of information are stored. The databank for gastroenterology took 50 man-years for its development. 1381 diagnoses and 35 750 symptoms are now stored, with 445 test cases. Answers for 22 questions are provided. The correct diagnosis is found in 84% and 87% respectively in the first line of the printout; nearly 90% seems possible.