DDStorm
- =======
+ =========
What is DDStorm?
--------------------
+================
DDStorm is a python application for brainstorming medical differential
-diagnosis.
+diagnosis. It is designed to be modular and easily configurable. It is
+meant to be used by the medical professionals.
DDStorm is still in development phase and not ready for deployment.
+Usage
+=====
+
+Clone the repository to your computer. Alternatively download the
+source code zip and extract it.
+
+Run the bash script named 'start' to start the program. Alternatively
+run 'python3 __main__.py' within the program directory.
+
+The program has a graphical user interface that can be easily
+used.
+
+Add symptoms: type the symptom name in the top text entry box and
+click on the <Add> button. Alternatively you can click on the
+<Browse_Symptoms> button to browse through a list of available
+symptoms and select from there.
+
+The symptoms you add will appear in the left sided panel. Depending on
+the symptoms you add the list of differential diagnosis will update
+automatically in the right sided panel.
+
+Configuration
+=============
+
+You can change the program configuration by editing the 'ddstorm.conf'
+file in the program directory. Available options are-
+
+library_path - The directory where default library data is located
+custom_path - The directory where user created library data is
+ located
+index_path - The directory where the index of disease hierarchy is
+ located
+module_path - The directory where compiled module files will be
+ saved.
+alias_path - The directory where symptom aliases are located
+splash_screen - Setting this to 'yes' (without quote) will show a
+ splash screen while starting up the program
+status_message - Setting this to 'on' (without quote) will show status
+ messages in the program main window
+clean_log - Setting this to 'yes' (without quote) will delete
+ previous logs every time the program starts.
+
+Editing DDStorm data
+====================
+
+DDStorm is designed to be extremely customizable. All data files are
+in plain text format and can be easily edited to suit the need of the
+user.
+
+There are three types of files-
+
+Library files - Contains the actual differential diagnosis data
+Index files - Contains the hierarchy of diseases
+Alias files - Contains disease alias
+
+Library files
+-------------
+
+* Naming conventions:
+
+Library files are named after the "symptom". Names should be as
+concise as possible. But care should be taken to avoid confusion.
+
+Library files are compiled flatly and the directory hierarchy is not
+preserved. So the files 'abdominal_pain/generalized.txt' and
+abdominal_pain/localized.txt' will result in symptoms named
+'generalized' and 'localized'. To avoid such confusion the naming
+should be 'abdominal pain, generalized.txt' and
+'abdominal pain, localized.txt'. The resulting symptoms would be
+easily searchable in the symptom list. E.g. if you enter
+'abdominal pain' in the browse box, it would show 'abdominal pain,
+generalized' and 'abdominal pain, localized' as available symptoms.
+
+The library files support setting custom priority. The priority can be
+set by naming the file as <symptom.priority_number.txt>. For example
+in files named 'abdominal pain.50.txt' and 'abdominal pain.120.txt'
+the diagnosis mentioned in the second file will come first (120 has
+higher priority than 50). If no priority number is mentioned default
+priority '100' is used.
+
+The file names may contain space, '-' or '_'. DDStorm converts '-' and
+'_' to spaces during execution.
+
+* Data structure:
+
+Library files contain a single diagnosis per line. The diagnosis
+should be as specific as possible. Preferably there should be a
+corresponding entry in the index files indicating the hierarchy of the
+condition.
+
+Index files
+-----------
+
+The index files represent the hierarchy of disease conditions. For
+example 'acute peritonitis' is a sub-type of 'peritonitis'. Now if
+symptom 'A' has a differential diagnosis of 'peritonitis' and symptom
+'B' has a differential diagnosis of 'acute peritonitis', their
+combined differential diagnosis will be the more general one
+i.e. 'peritonitis'.
+
+The index files can be named anything. But for clarity it should be
+named according to the disease group it represents. For example an
+index files of abdominal conditions can be named 'abdomen.txt'.
+
+* Data structure
+
+Index files contain one disease condition per line. The sub-type of a
+disease must be written below it and indented by 'spaces' (not
+tabs).
+
+For example:
+
+peritonitis
+ acute peritonitis
+
+The disease conditions of the same level should have same number of
+spaces for indentation.
+
+Alias files
+-----------
+
+The alias files contain the alias of the disease conditions. It's
+useful when a same disease may be known by multiple names.
+
+* Data structure
+
+The alias files should have one disease condition per line. The
+aliases must be separated with ';'.
+
+Modular structure
+-----------------
+
+As the library files are processed flatly, without considering the
+directory structures, they can be freely organized in directories as
+needed.
+
+The same conditions in different medical discipline can be
+kept in separate directories.
+
+For example differential diagnosis abdominal pain in medicine and
+surgery can be organized in 'medical/abdominal pain.txt' and
+'surgery/abdominal pain.txt' respectively. The program will merge them
+together during execution.
+
Licensing
----------
+=========
Copyright (c) 2015 Agnibho Mondal
All rights reserved
along with DDStorm. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
Contacts
---------
+========
Agnibho Mondal
mail@agnibho.com