Message: 1
Date: Tue, 27 Sep 2005 15:34:31 -0400
From: "Barnett, Octo,M.D." <OBARNETT@...>
Subject: [cis-wg] Evaluation of DXplain cis-wg
To: <cis-wg@...>
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<E982E9202FBC27488708739B825F83FB0105760D@...>
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DXplain, a computer assisted decision support system, is being made
available
for a three-month no-cost trial subscription with unlimited use, to
help us
better evaluate the system, and to allow you to evaluate it for your
institution's use. DXplain was developed and is supported by the
Laboratory
of Computer Science at the Massachusetts General Hospital. We are
offering this
no-cost trial to let you evaluate the potential usefulness of DXplain
both as a
clinical reference/decision support tool and as a differential diagnosis
educational resource.

As part of your participation, we are asking you to provide us with
feedback
about your experience and the experience of your users. Upon
request, we will
send you a report at the end of the trial telling you how many
individuals used
the application, and any comments and evaluation they provided us
during the
DXplain interaction (which would not contain any individual
identification).

DXplain can be considered an intelligent, interactive textbook on
medical
diagnosis. It allows users to enter a patient description and see a
list of
diagnoses that might explain the findings entered. It can guide the
user into
selecting the next questions to ask or tests to order, and will
explain the
significance of any finding in relation to a disease. DXplain allows
you to do
side-by-side comparisons of two or more diseases to quickly see how
each is
similar to or differs from the other(s). DXplain's knowledge base
contains
quantitative information about the relationships between diseases and
clinical
findings, and can display disease descriptions in a consistent format
that
leverages these data. This display format presents the clinical
findings in
order of the frequency with which they are found in the disease, and
also shows
the user which findings would be diagnostically helpful (findings
which strongly
support a given diagnosis, or findings which make a particular
diagnosis less
likely). This type of information and display in a consistent and
organized
format is not available in traditional textbooks.

DXplain can also be used to obtain the differential diagnosis for any
single
clinical finding or laboratory test abnormality. DXplain has up to
ten selected
references for each disease, linked to the corresponding PubMed entries.
DXplain has been in use since 1987; the system has grown and evolved
over the
years. The current knowledge base includes over 2200 diseases and
4900 clinical
findings. Since 1996, when Internet distribution began, over 48,000
physicians,
medical students and other health professionals have used DXplain.
Physicians
and students can use DXplain with minimal computer expertise and
without the
need for any formal training in its use.

In order to take advantage of this no cost, three-month trial
subscription, it
is necessary to sign and return a license agreement (either mail or
Fax - not by
email) by Nov 1, 2005. (Be sure to include the IP address of your
local network
if available). After receiving the signed license agreement, we will
create an
account for you and send instructions and access codes by email.

For an annotated demonstration, a set of Frequently Asked Questions
about
DXplain, additional information and the trial license,
GO TO URL: dxplain.org/eval.html

If you have any questions, or want further information, please
contact me.


G Octo Barnett, MD
Laboratory of Computer Science
Massachusetts General Hospital
Boston, MA 02114
obarnett@...