1. Artificial Intelligence in Medicine: An Emerging Discipline.- I. Causal Modeling and "Deep Models" of Medical Reasoning.- 2. Causal Models for Medical Artificial Intelligence.- 3. Compiling Causal Knowledge for Diagnostic Reasoning.- 4. Development and Use of a Causal Model for Reasoning About Heart Failure.- 5. Toward the Diagnosis of Medical Causal Models by Semiquantitative Reasoning.- 6. Explaining the Link Between Causal Reasoning and Expert Behavior.- 7. Computer-Based Medical Diagnosis Using Belief Networks and Bounded Probabilities.- 8. Using Causal Knowledge to Create Simulated Patient Cases: CPCS Project as an Extension of INTERNIST-1.- 9. Modeling and Encoding Clinical Causal Relations in a Medical Knowledge Base.- 10. Computational Model of Reasoning from the Clinical Literature.- II. Knowledge Acquisition and Verification.- 11. Knowledge Acquisition and Verification Tools for Medical Expert Systems.- 12. Empirical Analysis and Refinement of Expert System Knowledge Bases.- 13. OPAL: Toward the Computer-Aided Design of Oncology Advice Systems.- 14. HYDRA: A Knowledge Acquisition Tool for Expert Systems That Critique Medical Work-up.- III. Evaluation.- 15. Evaluation of Artificial Intelligence Systems in Medicine.- 16. Evaluation of Medical Expert Systems: Experience with the AI/RHEUM Knowledge-Based Consultant System in Rheumatology.- 17. Evaluation of Medical Expert Systems: Case Study in Performance Assessment.

Computer technology has impacted the practice of medicine in dramatic ways. Imaging techniques provide noninvasive tools which alter the di­ agnostic process. Sophisticated monitoring equipment presents new levels of detail for both patient management and research. In most of these tech­ nology applications, the computer is embedded in the device; its presence is transparent to the user. There is also a growing number of applications in which the health care provider directly interacts with a computer. In many cases, these appli­ cations are limited to administrative functions, e.g., office practice man­ agement, location of hospital patients, appointments, and scheduling. Nevertheless, there also are instances of patient care functions such as results reporting, decision support, surveillance, and reminders. This series, Computers and Medicine, will focus upon the direct use of information systems as it relates to the medical community. After twenty-five years of experimentation and experience, there are many tested applications which can be implemented economically using the current generation of computers. Moreover, the falling cost of computers suggests that there will be even more extensive use in the near future. Yet there is a gap between current practice and the state-of-the-art.