Medical diagnosis, prognosis, and classification of pathological states belong to the class of difficultly formalized problems. Skilled diagnosticians solve such problems effectively. However, the diagnosticians' skill is sometimes difficult to interpret in terms of formal logic and formal algorithms. Therefore, formalization of knowledge of skilled clinicians is of significant importance for training and advanced training of medical specialists.The method of structural organization and presentation of diagnostic information developed in our laboratory allows revealing of the cardinal questions intended to solve diagnostically significant problems [3,6]. Once answered, they make the diagnosis beyond doubt. Such an approach is very useful in the construction of knowledge bases for expert systems. Expert diagnosticians (specialists in neurology, electroencephalography, and neuropsychology) were asked to examine patients, to ask routine questions, and to comment on the questions and the answers. Irrespective of the patient's status and diagnosis, all the experts were found to ask nearly the same set of questions designed to reveal the origin of the lesion, its spread, possible etiology, and the degree of manifestation.This approach to presentation of medical information was used in our laboratory for development of the EEG-EXPERT computer diagnostic system. The system provides automatic diagnosis of the functional status of various brain systems based on visual analysis of electroencephalograms (EEG).The system comprises three simultaneously operating programs. The "Dialog" program is implemented
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