An Introduction to Expert Systems

As indicated in the quote above, the great Sherlock Holmes (and his physician creator, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle) realized the limitation of human memory and thought. A recent editorial in the Annals of Internal Medicine discussed this problem in the context of modern medicine and similarly referred to "the brain’s limited capacity for storage and processing" of medical information.2 In the past, physicians have attempted to overcome these limitations by the use of referrals, journals and textbooks but with unsatisfactory results.3 The conclusions of a study undertaken by the Massachusetts Medical Society and the National Academy of Sciences suggested that the situation could be improved with computer technology.4 One type of advanced computer technology designed specifically to assist in decision making is expert systems, the product of research in artificial intelligence.