Artificial Intelligence and Medicine

This chapter introduces some of the fundamental ideas of artificial intelligence (AI). AI in Medicine (AIM) is AI specialized to medical applications. The choice to model the behavior of a computer expert in medicine on the expertise of human consultants is by no means logically necessary. AIM is certainly not the first use of computers in medicine. Many of the administrative and financial record keeping needs of the hospital, health center, and even small group medical practice have been turned over to computer systems. The principal deficiency of the flowchart as a general technique for encoding medical decision making knowledge is its lack of compactness and perspicuity. Decision theory is a mathematical theory of decision making under uncertainty. A careful analysis of the shortcomings of any of the above techniques reveals numerous possible improvements. The chapter also presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in this book.