Diagnostic Reasoning Guided by a Decision-Support System: a Case Study

Abstract

A clinical decision-support system for dementia investigation was used in clinical practice. User information was collected based on interactions with the application. The aim of this study is to identify features in logged data that can be used for detecting learning and reasoning patterns in the user. A case of a physician who is novice to both the application and the dementia domain was studied and compared to the case of an expert physician using the system. Differences between them were found, and a clear pattern that indicates that learning takes place, both how to use the system and about dementia, was observed in the novice user. Further studies need to be conducted, focusing on whether patterns become stable over time, and with complementary methods that can detect reasons for observed behaviors. Software for automatic detection will be developed based on the results of this study.