Design of a Diagnostic Support Method Utilizing Interrogation Information in Traditional Chinese Medicine

Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) features diagnosis of a “pattern” that reflects the mental and physical condition of the patient and suggests an appropriate treatment. However, diagnosis requires enormous knowledge and experience, and it can be difficult to determine an appropriate treatment method regardless of clinical experience. TCM doctors need a framework for sharing knowledge and diagnostic methods and supporting treatment determinations. Here a diagnostic support method is proposed that extracts relevant patterns using the TCM database that stores the patient’s interrogation information as well as knowledge about TCM. The method classifies patterns based on the relationships among them and provides the pattern extraction to the doctor as a model diagram.