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Many new workup lists for problems and specialties are being added. The interface has changed to accommodate these.

The first in our latest case series blog. A 58 year-old woman who presented with confusion and aphasia that was recurrent and refractory to standard medical therapies. See how SimulConsult empowers clinicians to reliably and quickly arrive at accurate differential diagnoses, order the right tests, and reach a confirmed diagnosis, and thus provide the best care for their patients.

Two new chat-based interfaces encourage a team approach to diagnosis that includes both patients and primary care clinicians.

The software differs from large language models in being able to explain its reasoning. The interface is changed to reflect that, and to make it easier to compare explanations for the various diseases in the differential diagnosis.

The computable patient summary is now a URL that can be clicked to re-load the patient. This allows you to share the URL with colleagues, for example by email or pasting into a chart note.

The software now uses red asterisks near the names of diseases to indicate situations in which there is a non-obvious risk that can be avoided.

You can now enter findings using Natural Language Processing.

Hash and colleagues at Vanderbilt University Medical Center found that the SimulConsult diagnostic software saved time and was perceived by clinicians as useful in improving diagnosis.

Kulchak Rahm and colleagues combined Natural Language Processing of Electronic Health Record (EHR) data with SimulConsult’s ability to discern what information is useful. The result was a system that identifies useful information in the EHR, and uses it for accurate diagnosis.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s latest Covid guidelines have many Americans confused. Vaccinated people are supposed to resume wearing masks, lest they contract and spread the virus. Yet unvaccinated people are still strongly urged to get the shots, which are said to be highly effective. How can both these claims be true?

In a research paper, geneticists at Vanderbilt University Medical Center discussed their protocol for using SimulConsult in the diagnosis process. They suggested “In addition to increased communication, programs such as OMIM and SimulConsult can be used to analyze combinations of signs and symptoms to identify and prioritize differential diagnoses.”

The SimulConsult software runs just about everywhere, so we checked whether it could run on a Peloton exercise bicycle. Using the guidance (see hyperlink) for how to find the web browser on the Peloton, we found that indeed the software runs fine.

The SimulConsult software is most conveniently run on a regular computer or a tablet such as an iPad mini. But with the release of the iPhone 12 mini that fits in your pocket conveniently, we’ve made sure the software even runs with that small screen size so you use it whenever you need it. Even the genome analysis fits on the screen, but that is not something anyone will expect you to do on the go.

The SimulConsult Genome-Phenome Analyzer supports all HGNC gene symbols in use since 1 January 2010, even if the symbol has been changed. The hyperlinked article details how HGNC is systematically changing all the symbols that Excel turns into dates in a spreadsheet. But even if you use the old symbols such as SEPT12 in a variant table, or search for it in the software, SimulConsult recognizes that as being the HGNC symbol SEPTIN12.

In the 81 cases (with 216 individuals) the gene abnormality was recognized in 100%, and it was ranked #1 in 94% of cases. Large CNVs could be analyzed in an integrated analysis, performed in 24 of the cases. The process is rapid enough to allow for periodic reanalysis of unsolved cases.

“In all families (84 pregnancies) pertinence was > 95% between signs/symptoms and molecular cause”, meaning that not only was the correct diagnosis ranked as #1 but no other diagnoses were close.

Published in the Wall Street Journal on May 1, 2019 by Michael Segal, MD PhD
They can appear to be the proximate cause of a condition when they have nothing to do with the ultimate cause. Why are people afraid of vaccines?

SimulConsult announces a new version of its diagnostic decision support tool. The tool combines the power of curated human expertise and computational artificial intelligence (AI) to empower clinicians in diagnosis and workup of patients. It is used today in 118 countries. The new version has a completely new interface that allows it to run on mobile devices as well as on computers. It is fast to use and puts the diagnostic power into a clinician’s hands whenever needed.

Published in The Journal for Electronic Health Data and Methods on December 6, 2017 by Michael M. Segal, Alanna K. Rahm, Nathan C. Hulse, Grant Wood, Janet L. Williams, Lynn Feldman, Gregory J. Moore, David Gehrum, Michelle Yefko, Steven Mayernick, Roger Gildersleeve, Margie C. Sunderland, Steven B. Bleyl, Peter Haug, Marc S. Williams. The article describes the result of an NIH-sponsored study of integrating SimulConsult’s diagnostic decision support system with Electronic Health Record systems.

Published in the Journal of Genetic Counselors in April 2018 (open access) by Williams JL, Rahm AK, Zallen DT, Stuckey H, Fultz K, Fan AL, Bonhag M, Feldman L, Segal MM, Williams MS. The article describes the result of a PCORI-sponsored study of providing information about genetic testing to patients, including a display driven by the highly granular onset information in SimulConsult’s diagnostic decision support system.