In medical diagnostic examination three main stages may be distinguished: (a) initial exploration, (b) hypothesis-directed investigation, and (c) final diagnosis making. The purpose of this work is to study some methodological problems concerning the second of the above stages of the diagnosis and to prepare a background for a mathematical model [30] of this process.In diagnostic problem solving, the reasoning proceeds along the main lines traced by some initial suggestions and passes through various intermediate elements which are connected with one (...) another forming ramifying chains and nets of inferences and hypotheses. Such a complex mental construction is based on laws which form medical knowledge and reflect various regularities and relations, causal, structural, functional, and others. (shrink)

Ethical problems are related to computer data bases, containing data on individuals and groups of persons, as well as to computer knowledge bases, containing general rules and elements of expert systems.In the present essay the following conclusions are made regarding computer data bases: privacy, security, and confidentiality of medical computer data bases should be ensured. This duty should rest with physicians in hospitals. The principle of informed consent should be applied to gathering information which is to be stored and processed (...) by computers. Information stored in computer data bases should not be used for purposes for which the subjects (patients as well as personnel) have not given their consent. In order to decrease the possibility of misuses of medical data bases containing information on individuals, these registers should not be linked to other central data bases. (shrink)

The work related to medical ethics written by Polish authors are reviewed and some topics concerning teaching and various other activities in this field are presented. The attention is centered on the opinions and attitudes concerning the essence of medical profession and the personal model of the physician, doctor-patient relationship (including duties of the doctor), medical research on humans, abortion and other problems. The role of medico-ethical tradition in Poland is described. Main trends in polish ethical thought in relation to (...) medicine are taken into consideration. General aspects of medical ethics in present-day Poland are tentatively characterized. (shrink)

The aim of the study is to contribute to a better understanding of some aspects of the structure of biological knowledge and to make clearer to what extent the methods of reasoning may be useful in this field when only qualitative information is available. A fragment of biological knowledge (theory of cell motility) is analysed from the logico-methodological point of view as a coherent system and the possibility of its formal representation is investigated. The analysis is based on distinguishing the (...) main objects and their features (attributes) of which a given piece of knowledge is composed and on the values which these features may display. The features are interconnected by relations (in which various number of arguments appear) and these relations constitute the main (general, higher level) laws of a given fragment of knowledge (theory). Values of attributes are also mutually connected and these relations correspond to the detailed (lower level) laws. A computer system (in which Prolog language was used) enables to perform inference operations of progressive as well as regressive type. The main categories of reasoning procedures are described and illustrated by examples, namely a) search for conclusions which may be confronted with the actual knowledge in order to verify the system as a whole, b) formation of working hypotheses in the process of their empirical verification and explanation of facts and laws. The problem of development and modification of the system is also discussed. (shrink)

Chciałem Go pożegnać. Kilkakrotnie próbowałem napisać choć parę słów. O Nim samym. Okazało się, że nie potrafię. Udało mi się tylko przedstawić Jego poglądy na reizm Tadeusza Kotarbińskiego, ale uczyniłem to gdzie indziej. Muszę tu poprzestać na ofiarowaniu Mu tego, co napisałem na Jego dziewięćdziesiąte urodziny, w osiemdziesięciolecie naszej przyjaźni.

Major Polish authors writing on the philosophy of medicine in the period under discussion are briefly presented, namely Tytus Chaubiski Wadysaw Biegaski, and Edmund Biernacki. General background of their work and possible influences are described. The views of the above authors on the meaning, scope and importance of the philosophy of medicine are outlined.

In this paper, the main components of the medical action are divided into three types: cognitive operations, value judgments and instrumental reasoning. The study aims at fraiming some specific methodological problems in order to encourage further research on the theory of planning and effectivity of the medical action.