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CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1     Background of the Study

In recent years, the internet which has caused a revolutionary impact on office automation is currently influencing the industrial automation systems. The rising Web-services technology has been manipulated to provide various services to mankind which has been making life easier by the day. Computer technology also has gone through significant changes which have influenced many areas of the human race. One of this aspect of life that has been affected positively by the use and application of computer technology is medicine and healthcare through the application of a branch of artificial intelligence (AI) called EXPERT SYSTEM (Nohria, 2015). Alan Turing described intelligent behaviour as the ability to achieve human-level performance in all cognitive tasks (Daniel and Udo, 2017; Abu Naser and Alawar, 2016). An expert system is an intelligent computer program which captures the knowledge of a human expert as depicted. This information is then used to solve real-world problems in an automated fashion. The mode of operation of these systems is simply that expertise on a specific subject is transferred from a human to a computer. The main purpose of knowledge-based expert systems is to make the knowledge of a human expert and their experiences to be more commonly available, particularly in areas where they are not readily available. The quality, efficiency, and competitive control of expert system operations have increased over the years. Expert systems are applied in many diverse areas such as medicine, education, and engineering (Nohria, 2015). An Expert system has brought about many positive changes to the field of medicine ranging from the data and file processing of patient’s record, use of robotics in performing surgical operations to the use of Wireless Body Area Networks for sensing and sending information on the health of the patients. Medical expert systems have helped in creating various types of application systems to complement and support the duties of a doctor in effectively performing their duties. The main advantage of the expert system is the ready availability and easy access of patients to expert knowledge and advice at all times (Nohria, 2015; Amarathunga et al., 2015).

An expert system or electronic diagnose system is a software hardware system that attempts to reproduce the performance of one or more human experts, most commonly in a specific problem domain, and is a traditional application and/or subfield of artificial intelligence. A wide variety of methods can be used to simulate the performance of the expert however common to most or all are

1) The creation of a so-called "knowledgebase" which uses some knowled+`ge representation formalism to capture the subject matter experts (SME) knowledge and

2) A process of gathering that knowledge from the SME and codifying it according to the formalism, which is called knowledge engineering. Expert systems may or may not have learning components but a third common element is that once the system is developed it is proven by being placed in the same real-world problem-solving situation as the human SME, typically as an aid to human workers or a supplement to some information system.

As a premiere application of computing and artificial intelligence, the topic of expert systems has many points of contact with general systems theory, operations research, business process reengineering and various topics in applied mathematics and management science.

Two illustrations of actual expert systems can give an idea of how they work. In one real world case at a chemical refinery a senior employee was about to retire and the company was concerned that the loss of his expertise in managing a fractionating tower would severely impact operations of the plant. A knowledge engineer was assigned to produce an expert system reproducing his expertise saving the company the loss of the valued knowledge asset. Similarly a system called Mycin was developed from the expertise of best diagnosticians of bacterial infections whose performance was found to be as good as or better than the average clinician. An early commercial success and illustration of another typical application (a task generally considered overly complex for a human) was an expert system fielded by DEC in the 1980s to quality check the configurations of their computers prior to delivery. The eighties were the time of greatest popularity of expert systems and interest lagged after the onset of the AI Winter.

In like manner, developing one of such system to represent the repository of the knowledge of a medical doctor is as essential as any other expert system.  To this end, this project, Expert System on the Diagnosis of non-communicable diseases is a necessity.

1.2     Statement of the Problem

Health care facility should be accessible by all at all times.  But some of the people that should access these facilities are far removed from these facilities.  More so, in the few available facilities, qualified medical personnel are always key issues that need urgent redress. 

In view of the foregoing, it would be of great necessity to provide a computerized system that will provide a complementary medical service, such as medical disease diagnosis in places where accessibility is a problem as well as health care facilities where qualified experts are lacking, hence this topic, Expert System or electronic diagnosis system on some medical illness and disease.

1.3     Objectives of the Study

The major objective of this work is to develop an expert system on diagnosis of non-communicable diseases. 

It also targets towards contributing to academic research work.

Specific objectives include;

i.                   To develop modern interactive diagnostic software that will aid clinicians in diagnostic procedures.

ii.                 To offer prescription of medication.

iii.              To enable flexibility in access to information through the World Wide Web or comprehensive knowledge bases.

iv.              It is also to ascertain whether the diseases could be diagnosed based on signs and symptoms.

v.                 It will also examine a patient based on simple clinical signs, and to improve family and community health

1.4            Research Questions

i.                   How can the design of modern interactive diagnostic software aid clinicians in diagnostic procedures?

ii.                 What is the flexibility in access to information through the World Wide Web or comprehensive knowledge bases?

iii.              Can diseases be diagnosed based on signs and symptoms?

iv.              How can we examine patient based on simple clinical signs, and to improve family and community health?

1.6     Significance of the Study

If this prototype is fully developed will be very useful in many areas such as:

a.    It will help to retain the skill of an expert medical doctor in case of any eventuality;

b.    It can support academic development;

c.   It can be useful in many hospitals, both private and government, cases where the expert is not on seat;

d.    It can also be used in the laboratory for quick research work.

This study will be of immense benefit to other researchers who intend to know more on this study and can also be used by non-researchers to build more on their research work.

This study contributes to knowledge and could serve as a guide for other study.

1.7     Scope of the Study

This study is on design and implementation of electronic diagnosis system. The scope of this work will include the following

1.    A dynamic database system that can act as a knowledge-based system

2.    A complete model of an expert system to portray sample troubleshooter

3.   Explore the power of visual basic in data handling

4.   To implement a dynamic search system

1.8     Limitations of the study

The demanding schedule of respondents at work made it very difficult getting the respondents to participate in the survey. As a result, retrieving copies of questionnaire in timely fashion is very challenging. Also, the researcher is a student and therefore has limited time as well as resources in covering extensive literature available in conducting this research. Information provided by the researcher may not hold true for all institutions but is restricted to the selected organization used as a study in this research especially in the locality where this study is being conducted.

Financial constraint: Insufficient fund tends to impede the efficiency of the researcher in sourcing for the relevant materials, literature or information and in the process of data collection (internet, questionnaire and interview).

Time constraint: The researcher will simultaneously engage in this study with other academic work. This consequently will cut down on the time devoted for the research work.

Finally, the researcher is restricted only to the evidence provided by the participants in the research and therefore cannot determine the reliability and accuracy of the information provided.

1.9     Definition of Terms

Diagnose: The identifying of an illness or disorder in a patient through physical examination, medical tests, or other procedures

Medical:  Relating to medicine, physical examination to determine health: a physical examination by a doctor to check

Communicable:  A communicable disease that can be passed from one person

Expert:  somebody with a great deal of knowledge, skill, training, or experience in a particular field or activity - a medical expert

Knowledge-based:  Information system that store wealth of ones knowledge

Symptoms:  Signs of an ill health

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