Frank H. George Research Award Winning Paper: Cybernetic approach to medical technology: application to cancer screening and other diagnostics

Abstract

The cybernetic approach differs significantly from the conventional reductionist methods of natural and biological sciences. Norbert Wiener established the theory of cybernetics as a science of control and communication process in living beings (human and animals) and machines. Dutta Majumder in his Norbert Wiener Award winning paper extended the approach to include integrated complex human machine systems and functions with general systems theory as a unitary science laying the mathematical foundation for unifying observing systems, observed systems and the act of observing as indicated in von Foerster’s concept of second‐order cybernetics. Both from the point of view of ontology and that of epistemology the cybernetic approach now enables computer technology to incorporate artificial intelligence (AI) and expert system (ES) for knowledge based instrumentation for diagnostics and therapy planning. Presents the results of a project for development of a knowledge based framework for combining different modalities of medical image processing such as CT, MR(T₁), MR(T₂), SPECT, PET, USG etc. whichever is relevant for particular pathological investigation for diagnostics and therapeutic planning. Experiments were conducted with (a) Alzheimer’s patient data and (b) detection and grading of malignancy with oncological data for the cancer screening system.

Citation

Dutta Majumder, D. and Bhattacharya, M. (2000), "Frank H. George Research Award Winning Paper: Cybernetic approach to medical technology: application to cancer screening and other diagnostics", Kybernetes, Vol. 29 No. 7/8, pp. 871-895. https://doi.org/10.1108/03684920010342026