AUTOMATED MEDICAL KNOWLEDGE ACQUISITION - A STUDY OF CONSISTENCY

Knowledge bases are more representative of the population of medical e xperts if they are constructed by a group of individuals, rather than one practitioner. However, one runs into problems with consistency whe n information is elicited from a group without a consistent format and terminology. This study examines the consistency of relatively uncons trained computer-elicited medical knowledge using the computer program , KSSO. The results of this study show that the group of ten general i nternists were somewhat consistent in the diagnoses they listed for a patient presenting with chest pain. They were much less consistent in the findings they listed to differentiate between the diagnoses they h ad listed. The mean number of subjects listing each diagnosis was 3.3 +/- 2.7 while the mean for findings was 2.0 +/- 1.5. The implications of these data are discussed.