A model-based diagnostic program

In this paper the author proposes that a suitable function for medical expert systems is to provide checklists for the practitioner. Using the Z specification language the author formalises the notion of using anatomical models to construct diagnostic programs and illustrates his ideas with reference to a neurological problem (that of determining the sites of lesions in the peripheral nervous system). The paper describes the implementation of a small prototype and reports the results obtained in a retrospective clinical trial.