Preliminary diagnosis of respiratory diseases: an innovative approach using a web expert system

This study addressed the challenge of accurate and timely diagnosis of respiratory diseases such as influenza, asthma, and pneumonia by developing and evaluating a web-based expert system. The objective was to develop and assess both the usability and diagnostic efficiency of a web-based expert system adaptable to mobile devices. A combined methodological approach was used, using the rapid application development (RAD) model to build the system and the user usability system (SUS) to evaluate the usability with the participation of 15 users and 21 simulated cases with a confusion matrix to determine the precision, accuracy, sensitivity, and specificity of the system in diagnosing respiratory diseases. The results showed that the expert system has a considerable capacity to identify and differentiate these diseases, with a precision of 86%, an accuracy of 76%, a sensitivity of 80%, and a specificity of 67%. Furthermore, the usability evaluation using the SUS method yielded an average of 82, indicating a positive perception and good usability by the users. In conclusion, although the results suggest a promising potential to improve the diagnostic process in clinical and community settings, the need for future studies to validate its performance in real clinical settings is recognized.