CONSULT®
A medical revolution
Consult® is designed to be compatible with the human user, including the physician, physician’s assistant, and nurse practitioner. The system has been tested in over 40 hospitals.
Consult® structures medical knowledge to facilitate learning, consultation, diagnosis and treatment. In a traditional sense, it is a Computerized Textbook of Medicine, a concept initially defined by Patrick and Fattu in the 1970s. Core to the structure is that each and every disease (or syndrome) has a category-feature relationship (likelihood function), where the categories are the diseases, and the features are risk factors, disease history, signs, symptoms, tests, along with text and images.
In the 1970’s Patrick proposed a relational data base structure to relate a category to its significant features, categories and significant features to subsystems, and all categories and features to a total system. This structure allows three levels of interactions with the user who ultimately reviews the presentations and decides on a diagnosis.
Level I:
Consult® is a textbook of medicine where the user can read about any disease in the
conventional way, but with text embedded with the category’s significant features
including tests and images.
Level II:
Like never before, all categories in a subsystem are grouped by one, two, three or more
positive significant features. Current textbooks of medicine can’t come close to
providing these relationships. Such groupings are ever growing as we learn more about
the diagnosis of diseases. These groupings characterize some of the most recurring
presentation of findings in the practice of medicine. During a clinical day, the user will
find them invaluable. Level III processing’s are providing for discovery of categories
to add to existing groupings and for the discovery of new groups.
Level III:
Consult® does not diagnose – the user does, but after the user inputs findings, Consult®
provides a ranked order of categories, each with text, images, significant features and
an EXPLANATION. The images presented to the user for these ranked categories are
themselves like features, letting the user do the image processing. This is illustrated
by its usefulness for skin rashes in using a dermatological subsystem such as Pediatric
Exanthemas in Emergency Medicine, Pediatrics, and Family Practice.
The explanation is for each category and corresponds to the significant features of that
category, which agree with the findings. QUALITY ASSURANCE is obtained by
providing the user with those additional signs, symptoms or tests to obtain to assist in the
diagnosis.
Database Tables:
Categories are listed in a "total category" table.
Features are listed in a "total feature" table.
Feature values are in a "total feature value" table.
Subsystems are in a "subsystem table."
Text.
Images.
Findings.
Relational Data Structures:
Total system with all categories, features, text and images.
Categories with related subcategories.
Total feature list for medicine including symptoms in the history of the present illness,
The signs in the physical exam, and lab tests including electrocardiogram findings and
Diagnostic imaging findings.
Category-feature relationship:
Likelihood with probabilistic weights.
A priori category probabilities (were appropriate).
Text.
Images.
Subsystems with categories from the total system.
Under Developments
Internet Access
Palm Computer Compatibility
Wireless Operation
For more information on Consult®, contact:
Edward A. Patrick M.D., PhD, FACEP
431 Ohio Pile, 125 South
Cincinnati, Ohio 45255
513 528 2941.