Patient simulation in MEDAS: The medical emergency decision assistance system

Traditionally, the medical student (or resident physician) learns diagnostic problem solving by working up many patients and gaining experience from these cases. Working on real patients causes many problems, because it not only disturbs the patient, but it is also limited by time and space restrictions.; Computer simulation techniques play a central role in computer applications to medicine. Simulated patient files generated by the computers can be used as: (1) system testing tools; (2) experience gaining tools; (3) tools for investigating complex processes; (4) educational testing tools. Using computer techniques for patient simulation, we can generate standardized and varied simulated patient cases, and provide one-on-one, immediate feedback without limitations of time and place. The cases may be simple, or complex, or involve rare diseases, depending on the needs of the user. The user (student, resident, or physician) can not only learn by ""trial and error,"" but also can work on the same patient case again and again without risks to a real patient.; A patient simulation module was developed for the MEDAS medical expert system. This research has been carried out in three phases. In phase one, a patient simulation program was created, which includes all the features relating to a given disorder or to a given set of disorders, to test the accuracy of the MEDAS system. In phase two, an advanced version of the patient simulation program was built, which allows the user to set different levels of difficulty to meet particular educational purposes. In phase three, an object-oriented patient simulation program was built that uses the multimedia techniques (pictures, sounds, and video) to simulate a simple type of virtual reality.