The automatic digital computer as an aid in medical diagnosis

Abstract

The idea to be presented here is that an automatic digital computer can provide great assistance to the medical diagnostician by rapid calculation, based upon symptoms and physical findings, of the relative probability that a certain disorder fits that set of findings. In a given diagnostic problem, the physician is practically always able to select the correct category of disorders which will include the disorder which constitutes the correct diagnosis. But it is also true that in many such categories the distinction between the different disorders included is quite difficult.