The Transfusion Advisor: A Knowledge-Based System for the Blood Bank

摘要

The Transfusion Advisor is a knowledge-based system designed to facilitate the review of transfusion requests in the hospital blood bank. We have developed and performed an evaluation of a research prototype of the system which draws conclusions about twelve hemostatic disorders and critiques the appropriateness of the use of frozen plasma, cryoprecipitate (cryo), and platelets, which are products most commonly used for the treatment of hemostatic disorders. Our evaluation of the system revealed that there was closer agreement of the expert system with the domain expert than with the clinicians ordering the transfusions, and that the use of the transfusion advisor to screen transfusion requests may result in a substantial decrease in the use of these blood products.