[Tutor] Medical Decision-Making Question

[Steven D'Aprano]

Fred G wrote:
> Thanks guys for all the feedback.
> 
> re Jim's comments: I completely agree that the difference b/t "slight" fever
> and "returning" fever, etc will pose some problems.  My hunch is that
> initially I'll just do something like make "fever" be the only one for now

Any qualitative rating system is going to be subjective. If this expert 
system is aimed at doctors, you may be able to ask for actual 
temperatures rather than just "fever". Otherwise, you will have to come 
up with your own idea for what "slight" vs. "strong" fever might mean. 
The accuracy of the diagnosis will depend in part on how well the user's 
idea of "slight" matches yours.


> re Steve's comments: hmm, sounds like I really should take an AI class.
>  This problem is just really exciting and driving me, and I'm glad you
> pointed out that this will probably take a lot more time than I had
> predicted.  I'm pretty motivated personally to solve it.  I had a few more
> questions about your code:
> a) Why did you choose not to use a dictionary to store the diseases (keys)
> and their possible values (symptoms)?  That seemed the most intuitive to me,

Because it was nearly 2am when I came up with the idea and it was just 
the first thing that popped into my head. Don't imagine that I had sat 
down and designed the application!

:)

You're right though that good design of your data structures is vital.




-- 
Steven