"Associate," a computer program developed at Texas A&M University, analyzes symptoms or laboratory results input by veterinarians and produces a list of likely diagnoses.
"The program speeds up the time it takes to figure out what's wrong with an animal," said Craig Carter, head of epidemiology and informatics, Texas Veterinary Medical Diagnostic Laboratory. "Help sorting through the many disease possibilities can be especially important when the animal has a rare disorder or presents symptoms that are unfamiliar to a particular veterinarian.
"We called our program 'Associate' because it's like having another professional in the next room to consult on difficult cases," he observed. "That's especially useful to rural solo-practitioners, who may be geographically isolated from colleagues."
Carter, who is also a computer programmer, began to write his first computer diagnostic program in 1983, later enlisting the help of the late Jerry Rubin, a practicing veterinarian.
"Dr. Rubin ran a specialty clinic in Dallas and brought 50 years of experience to the project," Carter said. "He helped build the knowledge base for the initial program."
Carter and Rubin took a full species approach to their project, attempting to catalog every known disease for both cats and dogs.
"The axes of information for each disease include a description of symptoms, clinical and laboratory findings, recommended treatment and a bibliography," Carter said. "Everything in the database is backed up by veterinary literature.
"A standard lexicon drives the system," he continued. "That means that the same terminology is used in every instance, across species, breeds and diseases. That was the hardest part of the project - nailing down the nomenclature for all links."
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Contact: Judith White
jw@univrel.tamu.edu
979-845-4664
Texas A&M University
16-Oct-2001