Using Toxicity Level in Treatment Recommendations by Question Answering Systems

A computer program product comprising a computer readable storage medium having a computer readable program stored therein, wherein the computer readable program, when executed on a computing device, causes the computing device to:

• receive an input specifying a medical malady of a specified patient;
• determine one or more constituent agents of a potential treatment for the specified medical malady of the specified patient;
• retrieve a treatment toxicity profile corresponding to the medical malady;
• calculate a treatment toxicity score for the potential treatment based on a comparison of patient medical attributes of the specified patient to toxicity criteria associated with the one or more constituent agents identified in the treatment toxicity profile;
• and
• output a treatment recommendation based on the treatment toxicity score.

An apparatus comprising:

• a processor;
• and
• a memory coupled to the processor, wherein the memory comprises instructions which, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to:
• receive an input specifying a medical malady of a specified patient;
• determine one or more constituent agents of a potential treatment for the specified medical malady of the specified patient;
• retrieve a treatment toxicity profile corresponding to the medical malady;
• calculate a treatment toxicity score for the potential treatment based on a comparison of patient medical attributes of the specified patient to toxicity criteria associated with the one or more constituent agents identified in the treatment toxicity profile;
• and
• output a treatment recommendation based on the treatment toxicity score.