Artificial intelligence in medicine: a personal retrospective on its emergence and early function

Methods of artificial intelligence were gradually introduced into clinical decision-making research from 1970 to 1974. Evolving from pattern recognition and general A.I. problem-solving ideas, such methods helped researchers crystallize the notions of knowledge-based systems by the mid-1970s. In 1978 the early systems gave way to either second-generation frameworks for general consultative reasoning or to new, more sophisticated knowledge representations. This paper traces some of the major events in the early evolution of AIM systems, with emphasis on the developments at the Rutgers Resource, in which the author participated.