MEDICAL EXPERT SYSTEM

What is an Expert System?

Experts are people who are very familiar with solving
specific types of problems.
Examples of experts are a heart specialist and a
mathematics expert. Through experience, an expert
expands his skills to enable him to solve problems
heuristically, efficiently and effectively.
Expert System
Expert System is an information system that is
capable of mimicking human thinking and making
considerations during the process of decision-making.
Knowledge-based system
The fundamental function of the expert system
depends upon its knowledge, therefore, the expert
system is sometimes called knowledge-based system.

WHAT IS AN EXPERT SYSTEM?

An expert system is a computer
program that contains some of the
subject-specific knowledge of one or
more human experts.
In other words,
"an intelligent computer programme that
uses knowledge and reasoning procedures
to solve difficult problems that need
certain expertise to solve the problems.

NEED
Some of the reasons for the need of an
Expert System to replace an expert are:
To enable the use of expertise after
working hours or at different locations.
To automate a routine task that
reqquires human expertise all the time
unattended, thus reducing operational
costs.
To replace a retiring or an leaving
employee who is an expert.
To hire an expert is costly.

INTRODUCTION
AI programs that achieve expert level competence
(ability) in solving problems in particular task area by use
of knowledge base about that particular task area are
known as KNOWLEDGE BASED OR EXPERT
SYSTEMS.
These are complex AI programs.
Expert systems are generally software's.
These software helps us to provide an answer to a
problem.
It helps to clarify uncertainties that comes in system.

What is an Expert
System(ES)?
Definition 1: ES can handle real-world
complex problems which need an experts
interpretation and solve problems by using
a computer model of human expert
reasoning to reach the same conclusions
that the human expert would do if he or she
faces with a comparable problem.
Definition 2: ES is an intelligent computer
program that uses knowledge and inference
procedures to solve problems that are
difficult enough to require significant
human expertise for their solutions.

In short, an ES is an
intelligent computer program
that can perform special and
difficult task(s) in some
field(s) at the level of human
experts.

TASK-DOMAIN
The human intellectual (requiring the use of
mind) trying to be captured in an expert
system is called the task domain.
TASKmeans some goal oriented, problem
solving activity.
DOMAINmeans area within which the task
is being performed.

PERFORMANCE
Performance of the expert system is based on
following methods:Knowledge engineering:Building an expert system is known as
KNOWLEDGE ENGINEERING.
In this knowledge gathers from subject matter
experts and then codifying this knowledge
according to the formalism.
Persons doing this are called KNOWLEDGE
ENGINEER.

Architecture of ideal expert

system
User

Knowledge
Base

Communication
Interface
Interpreter

Plan

Planner

Agenda

Coordinator

Blackboard

Reasoning
Machine

Solution
Architecture of an ideal expert system

Adjuster

SYSTEM ARCHITECHTURE

COMPONENTS OF EXPERT
SYSTEMS
BUILIDING BLOCKS OF
EXPERT SYSTEM: Every expert system consist of
two principal parts:
(a) Knowledge base
(b) Reasoning or
inference

Knowledge Base
The component of an expert
system that contains the
systems knowledge.
Expert systems are also known
as Knowledge-based systems.

Knowledge base (1)

Knowledge is a theoretical or practical
understanding of a subject or domain.
It is expert systems contain facts and feasible
operators or rules for heuristic planning
and problem solving.
Factual knowledge is that knowledge of task domain that
is widely shared, typically found in textbooks or journals.
Heuristic knowledge is less exhaustive, more experiential,
more judgmental knowledge of performance.

The other data is stored in a separate

database called global database, or
database simply.

Knowledge Representation
Knowledge is represented in a

computer in the form of rules

( Production rule).
Consists of an IF part and THEN
part.
IF part lists a set of conditions in
some logical combination.
If the IF part of the rule is
satisfied; consequently, the THEN
part can be concluded.

Knowledge Representation
If flammable liquid was spilled then call

the fire department.

If the material is acid and smells like
vinegar then the spill material is acetic
acid.

Reasoning
Chaining of IF-THEN rules to form
a line of reasoning
Forward chaining (facts driven)
Backward chaining (goal driven)

ES-Reasoning Machine(2)
Reasoning Machine
To memorize the reasoning rules
and the control strategies applied.
According to the information from
the knowledge base, the reasoning
machine can coordinate the whole
system in a logical manner, draw
inference and make a decision.

Reasoning
Two methods of reasoning when using inference
rules:
(i) Backward chaining: it starts with list of goals and
works backward if there is data which will allow it to
conclude these goals.
(ii) Forward chaining: it starts with data available and
then concludes a desired goal.

Rules Creation
Rules are divided into two operators:
IF, called before (a premise or condition);
and
THEN, it is called effect (conclusions or
actions).
In general, rules can have a few
conditions by relating each condition to
the keywords AND, OR or a combination
(AND and OR). On the contrary, it is better
to avoid combining both in one rule.

According to Durkin, rules can represent a

relationship, suggestion,
instruction, strategy and heuristic.
IF<condition 1>
AND<condition 2>

AND<condition n>
THEN<action>
Instructions
IF car cannot start
AND tank is empty
THEN put petrol in the
tank

Relationship
IF tank is empty
THEN car cannot start
Suggestion
IF monsoon season
AND cloudy sky
AND weather station
predicted rain
THEN you are advised
to bring an umbrella

Strategy
IF car cannot start
AND tank is empty
THEN put petrol in the tank
Step 1 is done
IF Step 1 is done
AND tank is full
THEN check the car battery
Step 2 is done
Heuristic
IF fluid spills
AND pH of the spill < 6
AND smells acidic or sour
THEN the spills is an acetic
acid

Inference Engine
(Reasoning)
An inference engine tries to derive

answers from a knowledge base.

It is the brain of the expert systems
that provides a methodology for
reasoning about the information in the
knowledge base, and for formulating
conclusions.
Definitions:

Inference engine is a computer programme that

drives to the conclusion or solution and at the
same time provides the reasoning methodology
for information stored in the knowledge

ES- User Interface (3)

User Interface

It enables the user to

communicate with an expert system.

The user interacts with the expert

system in problem-oriented language
such as in restricted English, graphics
or a structure editor. The interface
mediates information exchanges
between the expert system and the
human user.

ES- Interpreter(4)
Interpreter
Through the user interface,
interpreter explains user questions,
commands and other information
generated by the expert system,
including answers to questions,
explanations and justifications for its
behavior, and requests for data.

ES-Blackboard (5)
Blackboard
To record intermediate hypotheses
and decisions that the expert system
manipulates.

ES-Note
Note:
Almost no exiting expert system
contains all the components shown
above, but some components,
especially the knowledge base and
reasoning machine, occur in almost all
expert systems.
Many ESs use global database in
place of the blackboard. The global
database contains information related
to specific tasks and the current state.

Who is involved?

Knowledge Engineer
A knowledge engineer is a
computer scientist who
knows how to design and
implement programs that
incorporate artificial
intelligence techniques.

Domain Expert
A domain expert is an
individual who has
significant expertise in the
domain of the expert
system being developed.

Knowledge Engineering
The art of designing and
building the expert systems is
known as KNOWLEDGE
ENGINEERING knowledge
engineers are its practitioners.
Knowledge engineering relies
heavily on the study of human
experts in order to develop
intelligent & skilled programs.

Developing Expert Systems

Determining the characteristics
of the problem.
Knowledge engineer and domain
expert work together closely to
describe the problem.

 The engineer then translates the

knowledge into a computer-usable
language, and designs an inference
engine, a reasoning structure, that
uses the knowledge appropriately.
He also determines how to integrate
the use of uncertain knowledge in
the reasoning process, and what
kinds of explanation would be useful
to the end user.

 When the expert system is

implemented, it may be:
The inference engine is not just right
Form of representation of knowledge
is awkward

An expert system is judged to

be entirely successful when it
operates on the level of a
human expert.

Building Expert System

The key for successfully building an expert
system is to begin it from a smaller one, and
extend and test it step by step, make it into
a larger-scale and more perfect system.
The general procedure for building ESs :
Design of initial Knowledge Base
Development & test for prototype system
Improvement & induction for the knowledge

Design of initial Knowledge

Base

Problem identification
Knowledge conceptualization
Concept formulization
Rule formulation
Rule validation

Stages for Designing KB

Structure
identify what the
problem is , how to
define it , can we
Questions
divide it into some
sub problems

IndentifiIndentification
cation
Knowledge

define key concept of the

knowledge ,for example :
type of data structure ,
conditions that have known,
the goal state, assumption
and control strategy.

ConceptuConceptualization
alization
Concepts

Re-designment
Refinements

use knowledge
representation
method to represent
the knowledge.

FormaliFormalization
zation

change the knowledge to

Rules language
programming
that can be identified by
the computer.

Rule
Rule
Formalization
Formalization

Stages for designing knowledge base

Conclusion
Representation

check the
correctness of
rules or
knowledge

Validation
Validation

Types of Expert System (ES)

Category

Problem Addressed

Interpretatio
n
Prediction
Diagnosis
Design
Planning
Monitoring
Debugging
Repair
Instruction

Inferring situation descriptions from sensor

data
Inferring likely consequences of given
situation
Inferring system malfunction from
observation
Configuring objects under constrains
Designing actions
Comparing observation to plan
vulnerabilities
Prescribing remedies for malfunction
Executing a plan to administer a prescribed
remedy
Diagnosing, debugging and repairing

Control

Expert Control Systems

Important differences between expert systems
and expert control systems:
Expert systems simply complete consultative
function for problems of special domains and aid
users to work.
Expert control systems need to make decisions
to control action independently and automatically.
Expert systems usually work in off-line mode.
Expert control systems need to acquire dynamic
information in on-line mode and make real-time
control for the system.

Two main types of expert

control
Two main types of expert control:
Expert control system

With a more complex structure, higher cost,

better performance, and used to plants or
processes where higher technical
requirements are needed.
Expert controller
With a simpler structure, lower cost and has a
performance that can meet the general
requirements for the industrial process control.

Structures of Expert Control

System

A typical structure of expert control system

Tasks of Expert Control

System

The expert control system should execute

following tasks:
Supervise the operation of the plant
(process) and controller.
Examine possible failure or fault of the
system components, replace these faulty
components or revise control algorithms to
keep the necessary performance of the
system.
In special cases, select suitable control
algorithm to adapt the variation of the
system parameters and environment.

Human Expertise vs Artificial

Expertise
1. Perishable
1.
2. Difficult to transfer 2.
3. Difficult to
3.
document
4. Unpredictable
4.
5. Expensive
5.

Permanent
Easy to transfer
Easy to
document
Consistent
Affordable

Differences between conventional and

Expert System

THE EXPERT SYSTEM

CHARACTERISTICS
(a) The Highest Level of Expertise
This characteristic is most useful. This expertise in
an ES is comes from the knowledge and problem
solving steps provided by the best experts in their
own domains. This will lead towards efficiency,
accuracy and imaginative problem solving.
(b) Right on Time Reaction
An Expert System must function and interact in a
very reasonable period of time with the user. The
total time must be less than the time taken by an
expert to solve the same problem.

(c) Accepting Incorrect Reasoning

This type of application is used when the information used for
the solution is unclear, vague or cannot be obtained and not
in a domain that is very clear.
(d) Good Reliability
The expert system must be reliable and it must be improbable
for the
system to make a mistake.
(e) Easily Understood
The Expert System must be able to explain the reasoning steps
during the
execution or the inference process for the user to better
understand what is
happening. An ES must be able to explain why such actions are
taken the
same way an expert would explain the decision he made.

(f) Flexible
Due to the large amount knowledge possessed by an ES, it is
important for the ES to have an efficient mechanism to
administer the compilation of the existing knowledge in it.
(g) Symbolic Reasoning
The Expert system represents knowledge in symbolic terms by
using one set of symbols that represents all the concepts of the
problem in the specific domain. All the symbols, when
combined or paired, will demonstrate arelationship between
the problems. When this relationship is represented in a
programme they are called structured symbols.
Focus Expertise
Most experts are skilful and knowledgeable in their own field only.
The ES
must be made to focus on a specific domain and not mix up the
knowledge
of two experts from different domains.

(h) Heuristic Reasoning

An expert does efficient problem solving by relating to experience as
the
basis of reasoning. If the problem encountered is new, then the expert
combines the knowledge and experience to solve the problem.
(i) An example of heuristic reasoning used by an expert:
I will usually check the electronic system first.
Humans will not usually be infected with flu during summer.
If I suspect cancer in a patient, I will check the patients family
background first.
(j) Making Mistakes
Since most of the knowledge in the ES database was input by humans
it is
subject to human error. This might happen due to the rules, facts, or
steps
not being considered or being wrongly input during the process of
acquiring of knowledge.

THE APPLICATION OF EXPERT

SYSTEMS
Its applications spread in a wide range i.e. in industrial and
commercial problems etc.
1. Diagnosis and troubleshooting of devices and system of all
kinds
2. Planning and scheduling
3. Configuration of manufactured objects
4. Financial decision making
5. Knowledge publishing
6. Process monitoring and control

ADVANTAGES
1. COSISTENT: it provides consistent answer
for repetitive decisions, processes and tasks
2. MAINTAINS: it holds and maintain levels of
information
3. CLARIFY: it clarify the logic of decision
making
4. NO HUMAN NEED: it cannot needs human,
it works continuously
5. MULTIUSER: a multi user expert system can
serve more users at a time

DIS-ADVANTAGES
1. SENSE: it lacks common sense needed
in decision making
2. CREATIVENESS: it cannot respond
creatively like a human expert would in
unusual circumstances
3. ERRORS: in knowledge base errors may
occur and this leads wrong decisions
4. ENVIRONMENTS: if knowledge base is
changed it cannot adapt changing
environments

USES OF EXPERT
SYSTEMS
1. In medical field
2. In agricultural
3. In education etc.

IN MEDICAL FIELD

EXAMPLES OF ES IN MEDICAL
(1) PXDES

It is example of medical expert system.

It is a lung disease, X-ray diagnosis.
It takes our lungs picture from upper side of body which looks like a shadow.
The shadow is used to determine the type and degree of harmness.
These systems include three modes:
1. The knowledge base
2. The explanation interface
3. The knowledge acquisition
(1) KNOWLEDGE BASE: It contains the data of X-ray representations of various stages of the disease.
(2) EXPLANATION INTERFACE: It details the conclusion.
(3) KNOWLEDGE ACQUISITION: It allow medical experts to add or change information in the system.

(2) CaDet
It is for early cancer detection.
Clinical data related to early cancer detection
and to cancer risk factors was collected and
incorporated in database, together with
heuristic rules for evaluating this data.

(3) DXplain
It is used for diagnosis.
Its data based contain approximately 4,500
suggestion for over 2,000 different diseases.

(4) MYCIN
It is simple example of ES.
It performs a task normally done by a human
expert.
It attempts to recommend appropriate therapies
for patient with bacterial infections.
It uses LISP structures for writing internally rules.
It uses these rules to reason backward to the
clinical data available from its goal of finding
disease-causing organism.

Expert system-MYCIN
An early expert system developed in
early 1970s at Stanford University
Wrote by Lisp Language
Author: Bruce G. Buchanan & Edward
H. Shortliffe
<<Rule-Based Expert Systems:
The MYCIN Experiments of the Stanford
Heuristic Programming Project >>

This expert system was designed to

identify bacteria causing severe
infections

Reasoning & Problem solving strategy

MYCIN could use backward chaining to find
out whether a possible bacteria was to
blame.
Certainty factor is used for an assessment
of the likelihood of one bacteria.
MYCINs problem solving strategy was simple:
For each possible bacteria: Using backward
chaining, try to prove that it is the case,
finding the certainty.
Find a treatment which covers all the
bacteria above some level of certainty.

MYCIN: Problem Solving

When trying to prove a goal through
backward chaining, system could ask user
certain questions.
Certain facts are marked as askable, so if
they couldnt be proved, ask the user.
The ask procedure is carried out in following
style of dialogue:

MYCIN: Has the patient had neurosurgery?

USER: No.
MYCIN: IS the patient a burn patient?
USER: No.

MYCIN: It could be Diplococcus..

Modeling Human Diagnostic Strategies

Problem Solving Strategy used in

MYCIN only works when small number
of hypotheses (e.g., bacteria).
For hundreds of possible diseases,
need a better strategy.
Later medical diagnostic systems
used an approach based on human
expert reasoning.

Diagnostic Reasoning:
Internist
Internist is a medical expert system
for general disease diagnosis.
Knowledge in system consists of
disease profiles , giving symptoms
associated with disease and
strength of association.

Problem Solving in Internist

Use initial data (symptoms) to suggest, or
trigger possible diseases.
Determine what other symptoms would be
expected to confirm these diseases.
Gather more data to differentiate between
these hypotheses. Either:
If one hypothesis most likely, try to confirm it.
If many possible hypotheses, try to throw some out.
If a few hypotheses, try to discriminate between
them.

Medical Expert Systems

Today
Medical expert systems were quite
effective in evaluations comparing their
performance with human experts.
Support the physicians decisions,
rather than doing the whole diagnosis.
Include many useful support materials
, such as report generating tools,
reference material etc.

Summary: Expert Systems

Effective systems have been developed that
capture expert knowledge in areas like
medicine.
Typically combine rule-based approaches,
with additional certainty/probabalistic
reasoning, and some top level control of the
problem solving process.
Not a huge take-up of systems, perhaps due
to failure to adequately consider how they
would be integrated into current practice.

(5) GERMWATCHER
It is for infection control.

AGRICULTURAL EXPERT
SYSTEMS
WHY?
It is same as other knowledge based systems.
It uses to give answer about pest control, the
need to spray, selection of a chemical to spray,
weather damage recovery such as freeze etc.

ARICULTURAL EXPERT
SYSTEM
(1) RICE-CROP DOCTOR:
This ES is developed by NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF AGRICULTURAL EXTENSION
MANAGEMENT.
Its main work is to diagnose pests and diseases for rice crop and suggest preventive measures.
It has knowledge about diseases and pests for identification and suggesting preventive
measures.
(1) DISEASES:
Rice blast
Brown spots
Rice tungro virus
Bacterial leaf blight etc
(2) PESTS:
Stem borers
Brown plant hopper
Rice leaf folder
Green leaf hopper etc

AGRICULTURAL EXPERT
SYSTEM
(2) AGREX:
It gives correct advice to farmers.
Topics of advice are fertilizer application, crop
protection, irrigation scheduling and diagnosis
of diseases in paddy and post harvest
technology of fruits and vegetables

AGRICULTURAL EXPERT
SYSTEM
NAMES OF SOME OTHER EXPERT
SYSTEMS:
CLIPS
GIS
LEY
CALEX

AGRICULTURAL EXPERT
SYSTEM
ADVANTAGES:1.It has ability to imitate human thought and
reasoning.
2.It makes modification of knowledge very
convenient.
3.It helps increases the production of crops
4.It has ability to handle uncertain information
5.It helps the farmers to take single point decision.

EXPERT SYSTEMS IN
EDUCATION
WHY?
Because it allow users to ask question on some
education problems.

IN EDUCATION

FIELDS:
Computer animation
Computer science
Engineering
Language (expert system teaches language)

IN EDUCATION
This figure shows the architecture of ITS for
teaching engineering student which has
embedded expert system inside.
For each student expert system will create
performance of student and change levels (like
easy to difficult).

IN EDUCATION
This figure shows the architecture of ITS for
teaching engineering student which has
embedded expert system inside.
For each student expert system will create
performance of student and change levels (like
easy to difficult).

Some Prominent Expert

Systems
Dendral
Dipmeter Advisor
Mycin
R1/Xcon