System Helps Doctors Make Accurate Diagnoses

A web-based system is designed to aid a doctor in making a diagnosis by producing a range of relevant and reasonable diagnoses for the doctor to consider immediately after the key symptoms of a patient are entered.

The system, called Isabel, has been used by more than 10,000 doctors in the United Kingdom. According to a study published in the May 2003 issue of Archives in Disease in Childhood, the system showed a 95% accuracy rate in 100 diagnoses. Isabel is named after the daughter of the system's founder, Jason Maude. Maude worked with Dr. Jospeh Britto, M.D., a pediatric intensive care doctor who cared for Isabel Maude when she almost died after an illness that was not recognized by a doctor in a London hospital. Maude worked with Dr. Britto to create the system (London, UK). The system is currently available on a stand-alone basis for pediatrics. An adult version will be available later in 2004. The system is designed to link with an electronic health record (HER) and enable a hospital to integrate Isabel with its other electronic information systems and reference materials.

"The Isabel system is an online, instant second opinion and safety net,” said Dr. Britto. "Many acute illnesses share symptoms and signs with relatively harmless conditions. Isabel is intuitive and clinicians find it easy to use.” The system, now being introduced in the United States, is also designed to be low cost.




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