Developing An Expert System Framework for Supporting Diagnosis and Treatment of Dyspepsia and Gastric Cancer Disease Using Local Language

Abstract

Dyspepsia is a pain of the upper abdominal and it has the problem of impaired digestion like abdominal disease or other abdominal disease, which has the symptoms of heartburn, nausea, and belching, upper abdominal fullness [1]. It also related to the problem of indigestion for a group of symptoms that cause pain in the abdomen, which affects at least 25% of the world population every year [2].  From related disease of dyspepsia, Gastric cancer is the stomach cancer that develops from the lining of the stomach that affects the cell of digestive system and it is the third leading cause of death worldwide [3]. Both dyspepsia and gastric cancer is diseases that affect gastrointestinal part of human body. Therefore, this type of disease requires timely diagnosis and treatment; otherwise it can cause death and other chronic diseases. In developing countries like Ethiopia, treatment option for dyspepsia and gastric cancer is not readily available which support medical professional and also there is a scarcity of medical professional, to address such medical problems a medical expert system can play a significant role, consequently, the main objective of this research study is to develop an expert system framework for supporting diagnosis and treatment of dyspepsia and gastric cancer using local language (Amharic language). To develop this medical expert system, knowledge was acquired using both structured and unstructured interview from domain expert which are selected using purposive sampling techniques from Arba Minch General Hospital, and from document analysis. Domain knowledge is modeled using decision tree and rule-based knowledge representation was used. This medical expert system is developed by using backward chaining to infer the rule and provide an appropriate diagnosis. Finally, the performance of the system was evaluated by preparing 15 test cases by provided to domain experts and for user acceptance test, users evaluate the system through nine criteria prepared by the researcher and the system has scored 80% system performance and 85.2% user acceptance this result shows that the study has a promising result that achieves the objective of the study. The researchers recommended that to apply data mining techniques and to extract the hidden knowledge.

Keywords: Expert System, Dyspepsia and Gastric Cancer, Diagnosis, and Treatment.

DOI: 10.7176/CEIS/12-1-03

Publication date: January 31^st 2021