A tool for pathophysiological knowledge acquisition

The explanation power of a medical knowledge based system (MKBS) can be highly enhanced by the availability of deep pathophysiological knowledge. This kind of knowledge is well represented through mathematical models whose formulation, either quantitative or qualitative, requires both domain specific and domain independent knowledge. This paper describes QCMF, a tool which makes easier the acquisition, through an interactive graphical interface, of the domain knowledge and embeds the needed methodological knowledge to formulate a qualitative pathophysiological model. Such a model is directly coded in QSIM and is simulated in order to predict the system behavior under the effects of a variety of pathogenetic mechanisms and therapeutical treatments. Moreover, different models of a given pathophysiological system are stored in a library so that they can be efficiently retrieved and exploited within a MKBS.