Reasoning with cases in clinical problem solving

This paper first describes the effort that has been done so far by researchers in artificial intelligence in the use of case-based reasoning (CBR) for the realisation of computer-based systems in clinical problem solving. Then, the approach we have chosen for building a case-based system in a specific medical domain (liver diseases) is presented, stressing the advantages of the use of CBR in medicine. CBR is a recent approach to problem solving and learning; it means using old experiences to understand and solve new problems. A new problem is solved by finding a similar past case and reusing it in the new problem situation. The aim of this work is the development of a CBR module running on an open network architecture.