A rule based system for diagnosing and treating chronic heart failure

The aim of this study is to design a rule based expert system which provides doctors with a better tool to be able to manage chronic heart failure in adults. The suggested system is intended to help in diagnosing heart failure at the earliest permissible stage and subsequently suggest the best treatment for the particular case. The designed system has two facets, one related to the diagnosis and the other related to the treatment of chronic heart failure. The former part is based on the latest chronic heart failure guidelines issued by the National Health Services (NHS) - National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) in August 2010. The treatment for chronic heart failure is based on the latest version of British National Formulary (BNF). This rule based system is not intended to replace the specialist but it may be used to provide assurance that all diagnostic criteria have been followed and hence the best possible treatment is given. The system is implemented using the CLIPS language which is a powerful forward-chaining rule based system.