Extending computer-based critiquing to a new domain: ATTENDING, ESSENTIAL-ATTENDING, and VQ-ATTENDING

The paper describes a research project which is developing expert computer systems to critique a physician's plan of medical management. In particular, the paper outlines the evolution of three computer systems: ATTENDING, a system designed to critique anesthetic management, ESSENTIAL-ATTENDING, a domain-independent system-building system, and VQ-ATTENDING, a prototype system implemented using ESSENTIAL-ATTENDING to critique aspects of ventilator management. The goals of the research project are to explore the critiquing approach in several different medical domains, to understand the design problems involved in implementing such systems, and to help other researchers build critiquing systems in further domains.