| 摘要 |
A system for identifying and selecting a clinical trial, suitable for a specific patient, from a database. Initially, a database of clinical studies, such as the clinicaltrials.gov database, is searched to find the trials specific to a particular disease. All of the clinical trials in the disease-specific area are then extracted from the database. Next, all of the "exclusionary criteria' listed in each trial are then identified and extracted. After identifying all of the criteria cumulatively across all of the clinical trials, a list is made of the criteria having the most redundancy, i.e., the criteria that are common to a predetermined number of the trials. The criteria is then "normalized', or standardized, by assigning a single, consistent category for generating questions that can be answered by either "yes/no", or selecting one of a small number of predetermined ranges. Finally, the number of criteria is reduced by eliminating the least exclusionary criteria. This reduction of redundant criteria allows the present system to thereafter generate a minimal list of questions that exclude the greatest number of trials for which a patient's medical condition does not qualify him or her. In operation, the patient or the patient's physician answers a set of questions using the information from the patient's medical record. In most cases, the present search engine generates the desired results of approximately 5 to 10 applicable clinical trials.
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