17162. The Use of Information Technology in Medical Diagnosis. Focusing primarily on cancer diagnosis, this paper explores the use of information technology as an aid to making diagnostic decisions. The development and use of Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) and their integration with clinical decision support systems (CDSS) for diagnostic problems are described and analyzed. Specific applications in breast cancer and prostate cancer diagnostic situations are described. The ethical, practical and technological limitations in IT-assisted medical diagnosis are considered. 11 pages; 38 footnotes; 15 bibliographic sources. 3,063 words.