Objectives: There is a high demand for efficient and time-saving diagnostic procedures. The paper deals with the development and first clinical testing of a computerized diagnostic system, facilitating adaptive testing.
Methods: For diagnostic of the most common disorders, in accordance with Chapter F of the ICD-10, a psychosomatic physician-patient module (PsyPAM) was developed, which is a partially standardized, computerized interview procedure. In a pilot study the diagnostic results achieved with the PsyPAM-system were compared with clinical diagnoses, according with ICD-10 in n=115 patients.
Results: About 88% of clinical diagnoses used as a reference base were also established by the PsyPAM-system. The average total processing time for PsyPAM-diagnostics was 22.3 min.
Conclusions: The PsyPAM-system is a promising and user-friendly screening tool with a short processing time, and is well worth further development and testing in daily clinical practice.