Medical Information Management: The MEDAS Approach

We present our concept of the comprehensive medical information system needed to support practicing physicians. Existing expert systems and automated medical record systems address only part of the information management needs of clinicians. What is needed is a comprehensive, integrated, modular approach toward medical information systems. Our system includes a recognized, tested medical expert system (MEDAS) combined with modules that address physician needs for an automated medical record, test selection capability, severity assessment, evaluation techniques, treatment protocols and reference to the medical literature. Each module has been designed to function as a stand alone entity or as part of an integrated system. In addition, we have developed knowledge creation tools allowing expert physicians with little computer expertise to create disorder patterns for the diagnostic inference (MEDAS), enter treatment protocols, and add features to the Feature Dictionary.