User interface for an evidence-based, hypothesis-generating decision support system

摘要

Systems and methods display at least one subject, and display a location for at least one user to enter at least one problem related to the subject. The problem comprises unknown items to which the user would like more information. In response to the problem, such systems and methods automatically generate evidence topics related to the problem, and automatically generate questions related to the problem and the evidence topics. Further, such systems and methods can receive additional questions from the user. In response to the questions, such systems and methods automatically generate answers to the questions by referring to sources, automatically calculate confidence measures of each of the answers, and then display the questions, the answers, and the confidence measures. When the user identifies one of the answers as a selected answer, such systems and methods display details of the sources and the factors used to generate the selected answer.

主权项

1. A method comprising:
displaying, on a user interface, at least one subject; displaying, on said user interface, a location for at least one user to enter at least one problem related to said subject; in response to entry of said at least one problem through said user interface, automatically acquiring factors related to said at least one problem from a record associated with said subject, said factors being categorized into dimensions of evidence, said record being stored on at least one computerized storage medium, and said automatically acquiring being performed using at least one computerized device operatively connected to said user interface and said at least one computerized storage medium; automatically generating questions related to said at least one problem and said factors using said at least one computerized device; in response to said questions, automatically generating answers to said questions by referring to sources, said sources being accessible by said at least one computerized device—and said generating of said answers being performed using said at least one computerized device; for each dimension of evidence, automatically calculating confidence measures of each of said answers using said at least one computerized device; combining said confidence measures of each of said answers for each dimension of evidence in order to calculate final confidence measures of each of said answers, said combining being performed using said at least one computerized device; generating a comparative evidence profile using said at least one computerized device and displaying said answers and said final confidence measures for each of said answers on said user interface with said comparative evidence profile, said comparative evidence profile comprising a chart that provides visual indications on said user interface of relative contributions of each of said dimensions of evidence to each of said final confidence measures of each of said answers and that comprises selectable features; displaying, on said user interface with said answers, said final confidence measures and said comparative evidence profile, details of said sources and said factors used to generate said answers on said user interface; and, upon receiving a selection of one of said selectable features of said chart through said user interface, automatically filtering said details of said sources and said factors so as to limit display of said details, said automatically filtering being performed by said at least one computerized device.