Some medical and mathematical aspects of computer diagnosis

Computers are used in medicine to assist with the two related tasks of increasing diagnostic precision and of making the improved diagnoses more widely available. Following a brief review of the background of computer-aided medical diagnosis, this paper describes the various automated diagnostic methods and their mathematical bases. The efficacies of several diagnostic procedures are compared. The important matter of the quality of the medical input data is discussed. It is pointed out that, to achieve the goal of wide-spread computer-aided diagnosis it is necessary not only to strengthen medical computing capabilities but also to educate physicians to the advantages of computer diagnosis.