Hybrid clinical decision support system: An automated diagnostic system for rural Bangladesh

Rural areas of Bangladesh do not have quality healthcare facilities or doctors. However, Internet is widely available everywhere in the country. A web based Clinical Decision Support System (CDSS) is proposed that will serve the rural medical centers. A Clinical Decision Support System is a software that provides diagnostic suggestions based on input patient data. The system will use Artificial Intelligence technology to use given expert knowledge. The two popular types of decision support system are described, Knowledge-based and Data mining based system. Both have their respective strengths and weaknesses. A hybrid algorithm is proposed that combines the two approaches and attains higher performance. The hybrid algorithm FOCL is highly suitable for decision support. A modified form of FOCL is presented that can also take diagnostic cost into account. Several real world experiments show the advantage of this new hybrid system.