Knowledge-based systems in medicine--a Nordic research and development programme

A Nordic research and development programme, 'KBS in Medicine' (KUSIN-MEDICINE), was run in 1986-89. Its main goal was to acquire an understanding of applying knowledge-based techniques in medicine and of the limitations of present-day artificial intelligence (AI) methodologies. The programme comprised four experimental installation sites (Tampere in Finland, Uppsala and Link?ping in Sweden, and Aalborg in Denmark) each prototyping in one or more medical domains. The programme was financed by the Nordic Fund for Technological and Industrial Development, by national funds for applied research and by a number of industries. Prototype decision support systems were produced in the following domains: intensive care (Tampere, Uppsala, Link?ping, Aalborg), clinical chemistry (Tampere, Uppsala) and clinical neurophysiology (Aalborg in collaboration with Turku and Uppsala). These served to transfer this technology to industry and helped to identify limitations of this technology.