This project was previously reported under Expert Systems in Medicine. The objective of this project is to develop, in collaboration with the Critical Care Medicine Department of the Clinical Center, an Expert Advisor for Shock Treatment (EAST) for use in an Intensive Care Unit. The drug administration protocol includes the capability for long-term dose maintenance and eventual dose tapering. Using personal computer-based technology (IBM PC-XT or PC-AT) in conjunction with an original generated BASIC forward chained inference mechanism, a knowledge base of approximately 1400 intervention-specific rules has been developed. These original rules have been supplanted by a revised set that does not explicitly reference interventions (drugs and devices) and is therefore much more adaptable to general treatment concepts. By implementing a table driven mechanism, and prominently featuring rule iteration, a greatly expanded knowledge base has been encapsulated in 900 rules. Numerous additions to the explanation, debugging and user interface capabilities of the system have been accomplished.
