Intelligent Approaches for developing Knowledge Based System for Diabetes Diet

Abstract

This chapter described the design and implementation of a medical expert system for diabetics diet that intended to be used in Sudan. The expert system provides the patients with medical advices and basic knowledge on diabetes diet.

Actually, the development of the proposed expert system went through a number of stages such as problem and need identification, requirements analysis, knowledge acquisition, formalization, design and implementation. Visual prolog was used for designing the graphical user interface and the implementation of the system components.

The incremental development of expert systems within a rapid prototyping framework is a viable approach in the domain of diabetic assistance. It has also been important to bear in mind from the beginning of a diabetic type-2 expert system development effort that the system will eventually be used by people who are with no complex background of computer systems. Hence the graphical user interface must be as simplified as possible. In addition, the food culture of Sudanese must be of main attention in allowance and prevention by the recommended diet of the system.

Many difficulties faced us during the requirement of various skills needed for the development of a successful diabetic expert system. These included that more information and guidance on medication were incomplete, thus data acquisition was expensive. I travelled twice from Egypt to Sudan and spent 6 months collecting required information. Besides the specialist was not available all the time. Neither commercial nor free resource of expert system was available in the area for diabetes. The proposed expert system is a promising helpful tool that reduces the workload for physicians and provides a more comfort for diabetic patients. Chapter 7