An expert system approach to antenatal assessment

This paper describes the field prototype of the antenatal expert system NST-EXPERT. The program has been developed in a new tool, that allows for a more powerful, time-efficient and flexible system. NST-EXPERT fields prototype contains a knowledge base composed by two modules (one for diagnostic purposes and the other for therapeutic purposes), a set of C routines that stand for part of the pronostic module of the system (improving considerably the flexibility of the same module in the research prototype), and a new user-system interface. The present development environment also allows a relativiey easy communication between expert systems and artificial neural networks (ANN). The latter will take deal, in the future, with the dynamic processing of the fetal heart rate and uterine pressure signals. Moreover, ANN will be used to reinforce the outcome prediction module in order to obtain a more robust system. Future plans also include the development of a new user-interface based on the results obtained after using the present one in the clinical environment.