Computers in clinical and laboratory diagnosis

Even though the process of reaching a diagnosis from the available information was first described mathematically over 200 years ago, it is only recently that computers have been applied to the problem. Examples are given to the type of approach that has been used in differentiating between possible alternative causes of conditions such as jaundice or acute abdominal pain and it is shown that the computer programme can give results at least as accurate as the most skilled clinician and usually in a much shorter time. The application of computers to problems of diagnosis in histopathology is discussed and the method of cluster analysis is illustrated in relation to the differentiation between lichen planus and leukoplakia. There appears to be some possibility of identifying patients among the group with leukoplakia who were most likely to develop a carcinoma.