Developing a new intelligent system for the diagnosis of oral medicine with case-based reasoning approach

Hamideh Ehtesham; Reza Safdari; Arash Mansourian; Shahram Tahmasebian; Niloofar Mohammadzadeh; Sara Pourshahidi

doi:10.1111/odi.13108

Developing a new intelligent system for the diagnosis of oral medicine with case-based reasoning approach

Oral Dis. 2019 Sep;25(6):1555-1563. doi: 10.1111/odi.13108. Epub 2019 Jun 20.

Authors

Hamideh Ehtesham^{1

2}, Reza Safdari³, Arash Mansourian⁴, Shahram Tahmasebian⁵, Niloofar Mohammadzadeh⁶, Sara Pourshahidi⁷

Affiliations

¹ Department of Health Information Technology, Birjand University of Medical Sciences, Birjand, Iran.
² School of Allied Medical Sciences, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
³ Department of Health Information Management, School of Allied Medical Sciences, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
⁴ Department of Oral Medicine and Dental Research Center, Faculty of Dentistry, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
⁵ School of Advanced Technologies, Shahrekord University of Medical Sciences, Shahrekord, Iran.
⁶ Department of Health Information Management, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
⁷ Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Medicine, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.

PMID: 31002445
DOI: 10.1111/odi.13108

Abstract

Objective: Since the clinical manifestations of many oral diseases can be quite similar despite the wide variety in etiology and pathology, the differential diagnosis of oral diseases is a complex and challenging process. Intelligent system for differential diagnosis of oral medicine using the artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities helps specialists in achieving differential diagnosis in a wide range of oral diseases.

Materials and methods: First, the essential data elements to design and develop an intelligent system were identified in a cross-sectional descriptive study. The case-based reasoning method was selected to design and implement the system, which consists of three stages: collect the clinical data, construct the cases database, and case-based reasoning cycle. The problem is solved by CBR method in a cycle consisting of four main stages of retrieval, reuse, review, and retention. The evaluation process was conducted in a pilot-based way through the evaluation of the system's performance in the clinical setting and also using the usability assessment questionnaire.

Results: The output of the present project is a web-based intelligent information system, which is developed using the Visual Studio 2015 software. The database of this system is the Microsoft SQL Server version 2012, which has been programmed based on Net framework (version 4.5 or higher) using Visual Basic language. The results of the system evaluation by specialists in clinical settings showed that the system's diagnosis power in different aspects of the disease is influenced by their prevalence and incidence.

Conclusions: System development using the artificial intelligence capabilities and through the clinical data analysis has potential to help specialists to determine the best diagnostic strategy to achieve a differential diagnosis of a wide range of oral diseases. The results of evaluation present the potential of the system to improve the quality and efficiency of patient care.

Keywords: case-based reasoning; clinical decision support systems; dental informatics; differential diagnoses; oral medicine.

MeSH terms

Artificial Intelligence*
Cross-Sectional Studies
Humans
Oral Medicine*
User-Computer Interface*