Evaluating the Utility of Available Differential Diagnosis Systems.

The accuracy and performance of two differential diagnosis systems, Meditel® and DXplain® have been tested by utilizing 103 consecutive clinical cases culled from the Internal Medicine Service at the University of Michigan. Each case was run in parallel on both systems utilizing available history, physical and lab findings at admission and comparing the resultant differential list to the final hospital discharge diagnoses. We find that these systems use fundamentally different approaches to the problem of differential diagnosis which produces significant differences in their speed and in the usability of their differential lists. Meditel® produces generally more accurate and complete differential diagnosis lists, faster than DXplain® and has the advantage of local use on a PC. DXplain® has a more user friendly interaction, and explanation facility but appears less able separate the multiple diagnoses that patients often exhibit.