An expert system which critiques patient workup: modeling conflicting expertise

PHEO-ATTENDING is an expert system designed to critique a physician's workup of a patient with a suspected pheochromocytoma. To use PHEO-ATTENDING, a physician describes his patient and indicates any tests or procedures which he has ordered or plans to order and any results already obtained. PHEO-ATTENDING then critiques the workup, discussing its appropriateness for the patient described, and mentioning any other approaches which might be preferred. The goal is to explore the design issues involved in building a computer system which critiques patient workup. A major focus is how best to incorporate conflicting expertise, which occurs when domain experts themselves advocate different approaches to a problem.