DTL: a language to assist cardiologists in improving classification algorithms

Heuristic classifiers, e.g., for diagnostic classification of the electrocardiogram, can be very complex. The development and refinement of such classifiers is cumbersome and time-consuming. Generally, it requires a computer expert to implement the cardiologist's diagnostic reasoning into computer language. The average cardiologist, however, is not able to verify whether his intentions have been properly realized and perform as he hoped for. But also for the initiated, it often remains obscure how a particular result was reached by a complex classification program. An environment is presented which solves these problems. The environment consists of a language, DTL (Decision Tree Language), that allows cardiologists to express their classification algorithms in a way that is familiar to them, and an interpreter and translator for that language. The considerations in the design of DTL are described and the structure and capabilities of the interpreter and translator are discussed.