A consultation system constructor for medical data analysis

MAD is a system that helps an expert data analyst in a specific application domain (like epidemiology or image analysis) to build reasoning models aimed at fulfilling specific tasks. These models may be subsequently used to guide doctors in the analysis of a set of data referring to a specific ground domain. Expert knowledge is represented at various levels: a general description of an application domain and various models that formalize the reasoning followed to perform specific tasks within a defined application domain. Reasoning models are represented as rules of propositional calculus, and a meta-knowledge permits to support knowledge acquisition. During the consultation, different external programs may be run when needed, without the doctor having to learn how to use them. MAD is written in Golden Common LISP and may be linked to any external software for data analysis, provided it runs under MS-DOS and does not require more than 192 Kb. Examples of application of the system to epidemiology and image analysis are given.