Computer aided test selection (CATS) for nuclear medicine--a prototype system for renal investigations.

An expert system for renal test selection in nuclear medicine has been developed as the first stage of a collaborative project on test selection in nuclear medicine. The stages of knowledge elicitation and knowledge representation were addressed by means of a questionnaire which was completed by five experts in the field of renal nuclear medicine. A flow chart was developed from the responses and implemented using a commercially available expert system shell (Crystal 4.5). A menu specifying clinical problems, for which renal nuclear medicine is useful, is displayed to the user who is prompted for a choice. Specific aspects of the chosen problem are then shown and again a choice is requested. Selected tests, in order of expert preference, are displayed and further information on any of these is available, if required, on selection from a menu subdivided into categories such as patient preparation, preliminary investigations, etc. The system provides cross-referencing to other areas of investigation and is currently being evaluated using a structured approach commonly employed in the assessment of user interfaces.