PROP - A medical expert system for preoperative testing

Abstract

Preoperative evaluation is carried out in an inhospital and outpatient way and may easily cause double examinations. This paper deals with the initiation of a medical application, named "Präoperative Befundung" (PROP) which is applied by clinicians, internists, family doctors and pediatricians since the year 2008 within the framework of an Austrian Reformpoolproject. The aims of the project are the standardization of preoperative evaluation, the prevention of double examinations and unnecessary tests, by a unique Patient-Anamnesis-Matrix. Moreover knowledge discovery about the preoperative process in general and economical optimization for public health insurance companies was focus of the project. How the system exactly works and how it was possible to make medical professionals using it will be explained in the paper. Empirical results from a two year application of PROP within a Reformpoolprojekt in the state of Salzburg, Austria will be demonstrated. © 2011 Springer-Verlag Berlin.