NEST Application

The NEST is an expert system, with the application AtherEX, serves to set up risks of atherosclerosis on the basis of information about the life style, family history and personal history - without any special examinations. The system has been developed in the department of the EuroMISE Centre at the University of Economics, Prague ( Asoc. prof., Ing. P. Berka, Ph.D.; V. Laš). More detailed information can be found here.

A result of a consultation is a classification of a consulted person to one of risk or non-risk groups. The final decision of the system is of an informative character thus it is necessary to consult it with a physician. As the input data were acquired only from men, this system is intended only for men. Results in women do not have to correspond. Used knowledge was acquired automatically (by a computer learning methods) from data collected within the frame of the twenty years running longitudinal study called STULONG. The STULONG study is primarily a preventive study of atherosclerotic risk factors of middle aged men. This study proceeded during the years 1976-1999 in the Second Department of Internal Medicine of the First Faculty of Medicine of Charles University in Prague and General University Hospital in Prague (head prof. MUDr. M. Aschermann, DSc.) under the management of prof. MUD. F. Broudik, DSc., in cooperation with MUDr. M. Tomeckova, Ph.D. and Assoc. prof. MUDr. J. Bultas, Ph.D. During the years 1998 - 2001 the data were transferred to the electronic form in the EuroMISE Centre (The European Centre for Medical Informatics, Statistics and Epidemiology) - head prof. Dr. J. Zvárová, DSc. The data used for knowledge formation represent data from entry examinations in all of 1419 men who were examined in the frame of the mentioned study.