HYPERTEXT TOOLS FOR THE SELECTION OF DISSOLUTION METHODS PRIOR TO THE ATOMIC-ABSORPTION ANALYSIS OF PHARMACA

A hypertext system for the selection of dissolution methods prior to the atomic absorption analysis of pharmaca was developed. The knowledge about dissolution methods, available in an industrial quality assurance laboratory, was first structured in a decision tree. The tree was implemented in a knowledge-based computer system using Toolbook software, an object oriented language for the personal computer. Beside its user-friendliness and possibility to build an attractive user-interface, this language permits the extension of the system with some important options, which would be difficult or impossible to create with other tools. The most important options are: (a) a partial maintainability of the system that is given to the user, (b) the visualization of the strategy of the decision making by displaying the structure of the tree in combination with a list of consulted pages, and (c) a database which ensures the completeness of the presented information and can easily be separately consulted.