Expert system for a neurosurgical clinic — Computer aided knowledge acquisition and maintenance

A computer program for the entry and maintenance of a medical knowledge base directly by a domain expert for a neurosurgical clinic is presented. Four independent hierarchies a tissue-hierarchy, a location hierarchy, a disease type hierarchy and a hierarchy with a controlled medical vocabulary are used to specify a disease. Such a disease profile consists of various property entries which build the basis for the automatic generation of the rules for the expert system.