What are the limitations of GIDEONs Diagnosis module?
GIDEON assumes that: 1. a single, Infectious Disease is responsible for the signs and symptoms entered. Non-infectious diseases may also produce fever, leukocytosis, etc. 2. all clinical findings are causally related to the Infectious Disease in question. Clinical findings which predate the infection or are related to an underlying disease should not be entered in the Signs / symptoms list. Seemingly long and irrelevant Differential Diagnosis lists result from failure to enter all positive AND NEGATIVE clinical findings. The GIDEON disease base does not include: 1. Self defined and obvious infectious diseases which should not require computer diagnosis: paronychia, otitis externa, phlebitis, suppurating wounds, olecranon bursitis, etc. 2. Conditions which are not diagnosed and treated by specialists in Infectious Diseases: hairy-cell leukemia, human papillomavirus infections, Creutzfelt-Jakob disease, Helicobacter gastritis, tropical spastic paraparesis, etc.
