Patent ID: 7330842

Claim:
An expert system platform supporting multiple and customizable taxonomies for use in a number of applications, comprising: a. a library builder interface for creating and updating a plurality of libraries in real-time, each of the plurality of libraries corresponding to one of the number of applications and including: i). a question table having a plurality of questions related to the corresponding application, the plurality of questions being categorized in terms of a ground question, branch questions, and final questions, the branch questions being grouped into N levels, N being an integer greater than 0; and ii). an answer table having a plurality of answers, each of the plurality of answers corresponding to one of the plurality of questions, wherein the question table and the answer table are related such that when the ground question is asked, an answer to the ground question triggers one of the branch questions in level 1 to be asked, when the triggered branch question in level 1 is asked, an answer to the triggered branch question in level 1 triggers one of the final questions or one of the branch questions in level 2 to be asked, when the triggered branch question in level 2 is asked, an answer to the triggered branch question in level 2 triggers one of the final questions or one of the branch questions in level 3 to be asked, and so forth, when one of the branch questions in level N is triggered to be asked, an answer to the triggered branch question in level N triggers one of the final questions to be asked, and when one of the final questions is asked, an answer to the one of the final questions triggers one of the remaining final questions to be asked, and so forth, until a last one of the remaining final question is triggered to be asked, an answer to the last final question triggers none of the final questions and none of the branch questions to be asked, wherein a thread of the ground question down through the answer to the last final question constructs a question-answer path associated with the answer to the last final question in the corresponding library; and b. a study manager interface for creating and updating a plurality of study tables in real-time, each of the plurality of study tables being associated with one of the plurality of libraries and having a number of studies, wherein each of the number of studies is related to at least one question-answer path in a corresponding library such that when an answer to the last final question is selected, at least one of the number of studies related to the question-answer path associated with the answer to the last final question is displayed.