DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION OF AN EXPERT SYSTEM IN DIAGNOSIS AND TREATMENT OF DIABETES

1.1 Introduction

Expert system is one of the tools used in medical field for diagnosis of diabetes. It is a computer program that provides expert advice or solution as if a real person has been consulted. Since the introduction of electronic devices into the medical world, the functions and operations of the medical world have been easy with most of the electronically device that are in place to assist the medical personnel in there diagnosis and analysis of patients in various medical illness. Now doctors and nurses or any medical personnel can now carry out a test on a patient and get the analysis from the device used in diagnosing the patience which are electronic apparatus or device, giving numerous advantages over the previous daces of manual means of diagnosing diabetes and the need for the development of a system that can enhance diagnosis prescription.

As a prelude to other parts of this study, this chapter will discuss the background upon which this study was initiated, the statement of problems that led to this study, the Aim and Objectives of the study. Others are Significance of the study, Scope of work, Limitations of the Study and Definition of technical terms.

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1.2 Background of Study

During the recent decades, expert systems have been used in some fields including medicine in the developed countries. Yet, in some of the medical areas, major activity for using of expert systems in diagnosis and treatment of related disease, teaching to medical students, advising to patients have not been done. This problem causes spending too much time and money, lack of timely access to physicians, and finally jeopardizing human lives. Diabetes is a leading cause of death in most developed countries, and is spreading rapidly in many developing nations. According to IDF (International Diabetes Federation) diabetes affects more than 140 million people in the world and 50 million people are suffering from this disease in India (IDF, 2021). It is the most common endocrine disorder in which the body does not produce or properly use insulin.

Medical diagnosis is a complex and fuzzy cognitive process Uncertainty is an important factor to diagnose a disease. Differentiation of diagnosis that share an overlapping range of symptoms is inherently difficult (Ambilwade et al., 2013). Doctors use their knowledge, intuition, experience and based on the patients’ symptoms, they arrive at an unambiguous result. Diabetes is suspected based on symptoms, risk factors. Blood and urine tests can be used to confirm the diagnosis, based on the amount of glucose found (Ambilwade et al., 2013; Diabetes, 2011).

Diabetes is a metabolic condition that leads to high blood sugar levels. It is a kind of disease in which the body does not produce or properly use insulin. The amount of glucose in blood is too high because the body cannot use it properly. Diabetes is a serious, life-threatening, chronic disease affecting over 300 million people (IDF, 2021). It is estimated that this figure will reach 366 million by 2030 (WHO, 2021) with 81% of these diabetics being in developing countries, where medical care remains severely limited. Fortunately, diabetes can be managed very effectively through healthy lifestyle choices, primarily diet and exercise. Furthermore, people who are at high risk can avoid developing the disease also through diet and exercise.

Medical diagnosis is the major application of. The purpose of medical expert system is to support the diagnosis process of physicians. It considers facts and symptoms to provide diagnosis. Medical expert system uses knowledge about the diseases and facts about the patients to suggest diagnosis. Medical expert system consists of five major components (Donald, 2009).

Expert systems can provide decision support or can be used as decision makers (Metaxiotis et al., 2000). In the decision support role, expert systems assist the clinician. This can reduce the cost of healthcare for the patient because the clinician can consult with the expert system in the same visit instead of referring the patient to a specialist. In rural communities, an expert system can provide decision support or can be the decision maker if medical staff are unqualified or completely absent. In the decision making role, expert systems would be used in place of the clinician. While this might be seen as risky, the risk from getting no medical attention at all is greater than that posed by getting it from a computer.

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1.3 Statement of Problem

The problems encountered by the existing system include the following:

1. People die as a result of wrong self-medication or delayed diagnosis.
2. A lot of people that visit the laboratory for diagnosis, experience shortage of finance as a result of wrong diagnosis.
3. Some patients complain of not meeting the doctors when they visit the laboratory, hence, their illness becomes critical.
4. Many patient spend too much time and money in the diagnosis and treatment of diabetes
5. Lack of timely access to physicians and finally jeopardizing human lives.

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1.4 Aim and Objectives of the Study

The main aim of this study is to Design and Implement an Expert System in Diagnosis and Treatment of Diabetes. In achieving this aim, the new system will accomplish the following objectives through the design of a system that will:

1. Reduce the risks associated with self-medication, wrong and delayed diagnosis.
2. Reduce the stress and inconveniences experienced by potential patients and not meeting with the doctor on the days of visit.
3. Help return the skills of an expert medical doctor in event of eventualities.
4. Formulate an intelligence diagnosis system and easy diagnosis of diabetes
5. Demonstrate the use of logic programmes as a logical tool for developing intelligent system.

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1.5 Significance of Study

With the growth in information technology, the study offers numerous benefits to the Federal Medical Centre and to any Medical Centre that deals on patient diabetes diagnosis. This system when completed and implemented will help allocate the stress of the doctors and other health personnel involved in analysis and prescription of diabetes cases as some of the prescription will now be done by the new system when a patient fills in the correct information needed. It also reduces the risk of delayed diagnoses and self-medication which can degenerate the problem.

Besides, the project report will help subsequent researchers who are interested in the topic or related topic as a reference material.

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1.6 Scope of Study

The scope of study focused on the Design and Implementation of an Expert System in Diagnosis and Treatment of Diabetes. This research work will concentrate on diabetes detection, treatment and diagnosis system using Federal Medical Center (FMC) Owerri as a case study.

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1.7 Limitations of the Study

During the course of this study, many things militated against its completion, some of which are:

1. Time Constraint: The time frame given to accomplish this project was very short due to school academic calendar and it was carried out under pressure which made the researcher not to implement some necessary features.
2. Establishment Policies: Establishment policies posed a serious limitation as most staffs are not ready to release information needed for this project work. There were lots of information needed from the staffs of this institution to enhance the study which took them time to release or they did not release at all for security purposes, hence the scope was reduced.
3. Research material: availability of research material is a major setback to the scope of the study.
4. Frequent power failure: This made the researcher append more money on fuel to ensure sustainable power.
5. Financial Constraint: Insufficient fund tends to impede the efficiency of the researcher in sourcing for the relevant materials, literature or information and in the process of data collection (internet).

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1.8 Definition of Terms

Diabetes: Diabetes is a metabolic condition that leads to high blood sugar levels. It is a kind of disease in which the body does not produce or properly use insulin. The amount of glucose in blood is too high because the body cannot use it properly.

Information System: It is a collection of procedures, people, Instructions and equipment to produce information in a useful form.

Technology: It is study of techniques or process of mobilizing Resource (such as information) for accomplishing objectives that benefits man and his environment.

Information: Information can be defined as the process of gathering, transmitting, receiving, storing and retrieving data or several items put together to convey a desired message.

Databases: A systematically arranged collection of computer data, structured so that it can be automatically retrieved or manipulated. It is also called databank.