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. 1990 Mar;72(2):140–146.

Twelve years' experience of computer-aided diagnosis in a district general hospital.

W A McAdam 1, B M Brock 1, T Armitage 1, P Davenport 1, M Chan 1, F T de Dombal 1
PMCID: PMC2499113  PMID: 2185682

Abstract

This paper describes experience in a modern district general hospital with a small desktop system for computer-aided diagnosis of acute abdominal pain, over a 12-year period involving 5512 cases. When compared with a baseline year (1973) in which unaided performance was monitored, during an initial study period (1974-76) the diagnostic accuracy of junior staff rose by between 10 and 15%. This higher performance level was then maintained for a decade (1976-86) despite changes in staff. The perforation rate among appendicitis cases fell from 27% to 12.5%, accompanied by a smaller fall in negative laparotomy rates. The saving in surgical bednights devoted to acute abdominal pain was approximately 15%, and the notional cost of resources saved during the first 6 years of operation was 120,000 pounds. Other hospitals have shown--in the short term--benefits similar to those obtained at Airedale District General Hospital. The long-term benefits of the system at Airedale reinforce the conclusions of the earlier short-term trials that a comparable system should probably be offered to all DGHs in the UK, not as an exercise in 'artificial intelligence' but as an effective continuing stimulus to good clinical practice.

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Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

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