Question Quantification to Obtain User Certainty Factor in Expert System Application for Disease Diagnosis

Abstract

Abstract—Expert system can handle incomplete or uncertain data by using certainty factor. There are 2 kinds of certainty factor, certainty factor that given by expert and certainty factor that given by user. It is very difficult to obtain patients' certainty factor (CF) on the symptoms they experience. In the present research, the author proposes a method to calculate user CF in expert system application for disease diagnosis by using question quantification method. By using this method, the expert system is expected to become easier to use because patients need not to calculate CF value from symptoms they experience, instead they only need to provide quantity and duration of the symptoms. The system will automatically calculate users' CF value. The CF value is obtained by finding membership function of quantity and duration of values provided by experts entered by the patients. This question quantification method was implemented in an expert system to handle diseases by using Delphi programming language and Interbase database.