GRAPHICAL KNOWLEDGE PRESENTATION IN A MUMPS-BASED DECISION-SUPPORT SYSTEM

Conventional knowledge-based medical expert systems present informatio n and elicit responses in the form of text. PHOENIX, a decision-suppor t system designed to help non-radiologist physicians select diagnostic imaging procedures, offers a graphical user interface. The system con structs and displays algorithms, or flowcharts, from the rules in its knowledge base. Users can view the flowcharts and move through them by answering questions at branch points. The system provides detailed te xtual explanations of the rules and descriptions of the imaging proced ures. The system is written in MUMPS, a common programming language fo r biomedical information systems, and is easily incorporated into clin ical computer systems.