Diagnoses from an On-Line Expert System for Chronic Pain Confirmed by IntraOperative Findings

Abstract

A number of researchers from Johns Hopkins Hospital report that 40%-80% of chronic pain patients are misdiagnosed. Previous reports indicate an on-line questionnaire, The Diagnostic Paradigm and Treatment Algorithm, provides diagnoses with a 96.3% correlation with diagnoses of Johns Hopkins Hospital staff members, in patients with chronic back, neck or limb pain. This research was undertaken to determine if diagnoses generated by the Diagnostic Paradigm and Treatment Algorithm could be confirmed by irrefutable indications of pathology, i.e. intra-operative findings. Prior to surgery, the Diagnostic Paradigm and Treatment Algorithm was administered to ten patients. The Diagnostic Paradigm predicted 61/61 (100%) diagnoses which were confirmed intra-operatively. The Diagnostic Paradigm had 71 false positive diagnoses, but these were part of the differential diagnoses of the correct diagnoses. These differential diagnoses were refined by medical testing.