Knowledge Engineering Tools for a Bayesian Diagnostic Consultant

A description is provided for a collection of knowledge engineering tools, developed to be used in conjunction with the MEDAS diagnostic consultant. The need for knowledge engineering tools when constructing medical expert systems, in general, and Bayesian diagnostic consultants, in particular, is discussed. A scheme for representing the contents of a medical knowledge base using a commercial, relational data base management system (DBMS) is presented. The paper describes how different members of the project team developing a knowledge base may hold different conceptual views as to how the information in the knowledge base is actually organized. The knowledge engineering tools described serve to transform information conveniently between these varying views of the knowledge base. Plans for future development are discussed.