DATA: a decision aid for management of the patient with stable angina pectoris

The patient with stable disabling angina must choose between bypass surgery, coronary angioplasty, or medical therapy. Estimation of comparative outcomes of these alternative therapies is difficult.

Utilizing Artificial Intelligence, an expert-system computerized decision aid, DATA (Decision Aid for Therapy of Angina), was developed to run on a personal computer and to calculate the probability of each possible clinical event based on individual patient characteristics. For each therapeutic option, relative clinical outcomes and anticipated charges are computed. Ten patients were evaluated retrospectively by DATA and by a group of cardiologists.

DATA agreed with the primary therapy given to all patients. The physician group underestimated the value of alternative therapies and underestimated charges for all therapies.

This decision aid allows comparison of alternative therapies in terms of relative patient outcome and anticipated costs can be better estimated.