[P.A.I.S., a personal medical information system. A comprehensive medical knowledge base]

The electronic medical knowledge data base DOPIS is a compliation of knowledge from various special fields of medicine. Using uniform nomenclature, the data are presented on demand as they would be in a book chapter. Concise updates can be performed at low cost. The primary structure of the concept is the division of medical knowledge into data banks on diagnosis, literature, medication and pharmacology, as well as so-called electronic textbooks. All data banks and electronic textbooks are connected associatively. Visual information is obtained via the image data bank connected to the diagnosis data bank and the electronic books. Moreover, DOPIS has an integrated patient findings system, as well as an image processing and archiving system with research values enabling research functions. The diagnosis and literature data banks can be modified by the user or author, or fed with their own data (a so-called Expert System Shell). For authors from special fields working on the project, an extra Medical Electronic Publishing System has been developed and made available for the electronic textbooks. The model for the knowledge data base has been developed in the field of ENT, the programme implemented and initially ENT data have been stored.