Structured data collection and knowledge-based user guidance for abdominal ultrasound reporting

This paper describes a system for structured data collection and report generation in abdominal ultrasonography. The system is based on a controlled vocabulary and hierarchies of concepts; it uses a graphical user interface. More than 17,000 reports have been generated by 43 physicians using this system, which is integrated into a departmental information system. Evaluations have shown that it is a well accepted tool for the fast generation of reports of comparatively high quality. The functionality is enhanced by two additional components: a hybrid knowledge-based module for "intelligent" user guidance and an interactive tutoring system to illustrate the terminology.