The goal of this project is to design a full function Pathology Diagnoses Support System to facilitate the collection, storage, and analysis of histopathology data. The system will be designed to provide the pathologist maximum flexibility in specification of: glossary content and organization; method of identification of key data entities (cage, study, animal, etc...); and sequencing of menu selectable items. This flexibility will allow the pathologist to tailor the system to the requirements of the site or study. The system will also incorporate emerging artificial intelligence/expert system techniques for collection and data presentation, such as voice input/output and automatic sequencing of menus based on frequency of use. Major technical design criteria beyond the flexibility and variety of specifications provided to the user will focus on: allowing the system to operate on multiple types of computers; operate in both single and multi-user environments; a modular layered design for maximum machine portability and extensibility of system functions; utilization of commercial data storage and analysis tools to capitalize on their expanding base of capabilities; and providing maximum ease of integration into existing information systems through extensive import and export utilities for all system data.
