Automated decision algorithms in prostate cancer

Excerpt

A diagnostic decision support system (DDSS) is defined as a methodology that provides guidance in situations involving complex decision sequences. DDSSs result in a systematic, ordered, and exhaustive evaluation of evidence and weighting of individual items of evidence as they are combined to form the basis for a final decision. Most DDSSs provide a numeric measure of confidence in the final decision or diagnostic recommendation. The decisive advantage of DDSSs is the ability to process descriptive symbolic information, in contrast to systems limited to the handling of numerical information only for which extensive analytical procedures are already established. Most human knowledge and insight related to diagnostic and prognostic evaluation exist in symbolic form as concepts and linguistic terms, so the DDSSs have facilitated systematic evaluation of evidence to provide diagnostic and prognostic decision support. …