DXplain is a diagnostic decision support system in general medicine.

DXplain acts on a set of clinical findings (signs, symptoms, laboratory data) to produce a ranked list of diagnoses, which might explain (or be associated with) the clinical manifestations. DXplain provides justification for why each of these diseases might be considered, it suggests what further clinical information would be useful to collect for each disease, and lists what clinical manifestations, if any, would be unusual or atypical for each of the specific diseases. DXplain does not offer definitive medical consultation and should not be used as a substitute for physician diagnostic decision-making. DXplain takes advantage of a large database of the basic probabilities of over 4,500 clinical manifestations associated with over 2,000 different diseases. The database and the system are continually being improved and adapted as a result of comments from the users. DXplain is in routine use at a number of hospitals and medical schools mostly for clinical education but also for clinical consultation. DXplain has the characteristics of both an electronic medical textbook and a medical reference system. In the role of a medical textbook, DXplain can provide a comprehensive description of over 2,000 different diseases, emphasizing the signs and symptoms that occur in each disease, the etiology, the pathology, and the prognosis. DXplain also provides up to 10 recent references that have been selected as being appropriate reference material for each specific disease. In addition, DXplain can provide a list of diseases, which should be considered for any one of over 5,000 different clinical manifestations (signs, symptoms, and laboratory examinations).

DXplain is owned by Massachusetts General Hospital and access is provided only after executing a license with MGH. Access is limited to hospitals, medical organizations, medical schools, physicians and nursing practitioners.

A demo version is available at: http://www.lcs.mgh.harvard.edu/

DXplain was developed by Octo Barnet Barnet, Octo@mgh.harvard.edu, and colleagues at Harvard Medical School’s Laboratory of Computer Science, Massachusetts General Hospital, over ten years ago.

For information on how to obtain a license to use the actual DXplain program, see the details on the home page of the Massachusetts General Hospital: http://www.lcs.mgh.harvard.edu/dxplain.htm

E-mail: dxplain@mgh.harvard.edu