A Framework for The Design of Speech-Enabled Self-Care EHealth Systems

The Internet provides a wide range of health information and services which consumers access for self-care and to participate in a more informed way in their healthcare when they see their physician. This information and services are however, delivered in text form and therefore, does not cater for the needs of the non-computer literate, the visually impaired and the blind. This paper presents a framework for the design of speech-enabled self-care e-Health systems. Reasoning-induced disease diagnosis which existing speech-based disease screening systems lack has been incorporated into the framework to enable systems based on the framework diagnose more than one type of disease. Based on the framework, speechbased self-care e-Health system (SSeS) prototype application was developed. The originality of this framework is that it is speech-based. This takes care of the health needs of the category of people earlier identified and the underserved people, majority of those who are domiciled in Africa

Using IS/IT to Support the Delivery of Chinese Medicine: The Design of a Chinese Medicine Clinic System

Using Information System/Information Technology (IS/IT) in Chinese Medicine (CM) has not been discussed much, if at all, in the literature. This is unlike the numerous references to the role for IS/IT to support various aspects of western medicine practice. Though the diagnosis and treatments between western medicine and CM are different, the clinical processes are similar. Thus, we believe that by implementing IS/IT system solutions, CM practice can also enjoy many benefits. CM practice relies on expert knowledge, hence applying knowledge management (KM) concepts to any proposed Chinese Medicine Clinic System (CMCS) is a necessary critical factor in the design of suitable IS/IT solutions in this context. This paper serves to identify a role for IS/IT in assisting CM clinic daily key processes as well as identify key system features and functions for a suitable CMCS

An Investigation on Integrating Eastern and Western Medicine with Informatics

Today, in many western countries, acceptance of alternate forms of healthcare such as Chinese medicine (CM) is increasing. In fact, countries such as Australia, Canada, and England are going so far as to set regulations, education, and standards regarding the practice of CM in these respective countries. Further, we can see the integration between western and Chinese medicine delivery of care and treatments in many instances. Information Systems and Information Technology (IS/IT) can be a key enabler in assisting this integration. The following study examines aspects of such integrations using IS/IT and identifies that CM IS/IT is more likely to succeed when there is synthesis between key aspects of the unique environment and user requirements. This perspective is supported theoretically by adapting Churchman’s Inquiring Systems to frame CM as a combination of Hegelian and Kantian inquiring systems with the support of Singerian, Lockean, and Leibnizian inquiring systems and Knowledge Management (KM) features. Based on this, the study then proposes a new design for a patient management system in clinics and hospitals

Misdiagnosis and undiagnosis due to pattern similarity in Chinese medicine: a stochastic simulation study using pattern differentiation algorithm

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Whether pattern similarity causes misdiagnosis and undiagnosis in Chinese medicine is unknown. This study aims to test the effect of pattern similarity and examination methods on diagnostic outcomes of pattern differentiation algorithm (PDA).</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A dataset with 73 <it>Zangfu </it>single patterns was used with manifestations according to the Four Examinations, namely inspection (Ip), auscultation and olfaction (AO), inquiry (Iq) and palpation (P). PDA was applied to 100 true positive and 100 true negative manifestation profiles per pattern in simulation. Four runs of simulations were used according to the Four Examinations: Ip, Ip+AO, Ip+AO+Iq and Ip+AO+Iq+P. Three pattern differentiation outcomes were separated, namely correct diagnosis, misdiagnosis and undiagnosis. Outcomes frequencies, dual pattern similarity and pattern-dataset similarity were calculated.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Dual pattern similarity was associated with Four Examinations (gamma = -0.646, <it>P </it>< 0.01). Combination of Four Examinations was associated (gamma = -0.618, <it>P </it>< 0.01) with decreasing frequencies of pattern differentiation errors, being less influenced by pattern-dataset similarity (Ip: gamma = 0.684; Ip+AO: gamma = 0.660; Ip+AO+Iq: gamma = 0.398; Ip+AO+Iq+P: gamma = 0.286, <it>P </it>< 0.01 for all combinations).</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Applied in an incremental manner, Four Examinations progressively reduce the association between pattern similarity and pattern differentiation outcome and are recommended to avoid misdiagnosis and undiagnosis due to similarity.</p

Integrated Design of the Intelligent Web-Based Chinese Medical Diagnostic System (CMDS) – Systematic Development for Digestive Health

[[abstract]]Chinese Medicine (CM) has been recognized as the popular complementary medicine in the world and the abundance of healing knowledge has been transmitted and enriched from generation to generation. The well-recorded archive of Chinese medical knowledge has grown and developed into very detailed theory and philosophy together with a comprehensive and subtle system of diagnosis. Recently, the Internet has been quite often used in a variety of applications for medical purpose, i.e. to provide real-time and platform-independent access which can build and share knowledge about clinical diagnosis experiences, knacks, diseases treatments, and even prescriptions. In this respect, there is a real need of an intelligent system for Chinese medical physician or education because Chinese medicine has evolved complex methods of diagnosis and treatment tailored to the individual’s subtle patterns of disharmony. This allows it not only to treat fully manifest diseases, but also to assist in maintaining health and balance to prevent illnesses from occurring. Ontologies become an important mechanism to build knowledge-based systems. The role of ontologies is to capture domain knowledge and provide a commonly agreed upon understanding of a domain. The advantages include the sharing and re-use of knowledge, and the better engineering of knowledge-based system with respect to acquisition, verification, and maintenance. In this paper, we propose a unifying framework for intelligent disease diagnosis system named CMDS – Chinese Medical Diagnostic System where the medical ontology has been integrated for the system development, and the methodologies of its implementation for digestive health. CMDS uses web interface and expert system technology to act as human expertise and diagnose a number of digestive system diseases. Besides, to efficiently elicit the knowledge of digestive system from domain experts and construct the medical ontology, a hybrid knowledge acquisition strategy is proposed. CMDS provides a truly precise analysis for digestive system disease and the prototype system can diagnose up to 50 types of diseases amongst 10 species of primary digestive system, and just uses over 500 rules and 600 images for various diseases. The satisfactory performance of the system has proven that it could serve the educational purpose, act as a consultant role and the functionality can be extended to the whole body health system

Ontologies and Computational Methods for Traditional Chinese Medicine

Perinteinen kiinalainen lääketiede (PKL) on tuhansia vuosia vanha hoitomuoto, jonka tarkoituksena on terveyden ylläpito, tautien ennaltaehkäisemisen ja terveydellisten ongelmien hoito. Useat vuosittain julkaistavat tutkimukset tukevat hoitojen tehokkuutta ja PKL onkin jatkuvasti kasvattamassa suosiotaan maailmanlaajuisesti. Kiinassa PKL ollut suosittu hoitomuoto jo pitkään ja nykyään sitä harjoitetaan rinnakkain länsimaisen lääketieteen kanssa. Viime vuosikymmeninä tapahtuneen tietotekniikan kehityksen ja yleistymisen myötä myös PKL:n menetelmät ovat muuttuneet ja tietotekniikkaa on alettu hyödyntämään PKL:n tutkimuksessa. PKL:n tietoa on tallennettu digitaaliseen muotoon, minkä seurauksena on syntynyt suuri määrä erilaisia tietokantoja. Tieto on jakautunut eri tietokantoihin, joiden terminologia ei ole yhtenevää. Tämä aiheuttaa ongelmia tiedon löytämisessä ja tietoa hyödyntävien sovellusten kehittämisessä. Tässä työssä selvitetään, mitä PKL on, ja mikä sen asema on nykyään Kiinassa ja muualla maailmalla. Työn tarkoituksena on tutkia PKL:n tietoteknisten sovelluksen kehittämistä ja siihen liittyviä haasteita. Työssä perehdytään PKL:n ontologioiden ja semanttisten työkalujen toimintaan, sekä PKL:n laskennallisiin menetelmiin ja niiden tarjoamiin mahdollisuuksiin. Lisäksi kerrotaan uusimmista kansainvälisesti merkittävistä projekteista ja pohditaan tulevaisuuden näkymiä. Jo kehitetyt PKL:n tietotekniset sovellukset tarjoavat uusia mahdollisuuksia tiedon etsimiseen ja parantavat tutkijoiden mahdollisuutta jakaa tietoa ja tehdä yhteistyötä. Tietokoneavusteiset diagnoosityökalut ja asiantuntijajärjestelmät tarjoavat mahdollisuuksia lääkärin tekemän diagnoosin varmistamiseen. Tulevaisuudessa laskennallisia menetelmiä hyödyntäen voitaisiin tarjota terveyttä ja hyvinvointia edistäviä palveluja verkossa.Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) has been used for thousands of years in China for the purposes of health maintenance, disease prevention and treatment of health problems. Several published studies support the effectiveness of TCM treatments and the global use of TCM is constantly increasing. In China, Western and Chinese medicine are practiced in parallel. During the past few decades, the use of information technology in medicine has increased rapidly. The development of information technology has opened up new possibilities for information storage and sharing, as well as communication and interaction between people. Along with the growing use of information technology, a wide variety of patient databases and other electronic sources of information have emerged. However, the information is fragmented and dispersed, and the terminology is ambiguous. The objective of the thesis is to examine the position of TCM today, and to find out what changes and new opportunities the modern information technology brings for different aspects of TCM. This study describes how ontologies and semantic tools can be utilized when collecting existing knowledge and combining different databases. Also different computational methods and TCM expert systems are introduced. Finally, the most recent projects in the field of TCM are discussed and the future challenges are reflected. The computational methods for TCM, such as diagnostic tools and expert systems, could be very useful in anticipating and preventing health problems. E-science and knowledge discovery offer new ways for knowledge sharing and cooperation. TCM expert systems can be used to generate diagnosis or automatic clinical alerts. In the future, a comprehensive and easily accessible online health service system could be developed and used to improve the health and well-being of people