Differential diagnosis of dementia: a comparison between the expert system EVINCE and clinicians

The diagnostic performance of the expert system EVINCE was compared with that of 85 clinicians in diagnosing 10 patients suspected of suffering from dementia. A multidisciplinary expert committee provided a standard diagnosis as reference for comparison. The results showed that the syndrome and etiologic diagnoses made by EVINCE were in very close agreement with those of the expert committee and that the diagnostic performance of EVINCE was better than that of the average clinician. The present findings indicate that expert systems, especially those within the realm of complex multidimensional medical problems, could be a valuable aid in medical practice.