DrPizzorno.net
FAQ Page

General

The DrPizzorno site is the first commercially available version of the SaluGenecists Expert System. This artificial intelligence system is designed to use your unique medical history to determine a completely personalized self-care protocol to complement your current care. Instead of just matching treatments to disease diagnosis, we recommend treatments based on physiological and biochemical dysfunction patterns.
Dysfunction occurs when body systems are not running as smoothly as they should. For example, biochemical dysfunctions can occur when an enzyme is genetically impaired or nutrient intake is too low or too high. Physiological dysfunctions often occur due to damaged organ tissues or the aging process. By asking the right questions, we attempt to hone in on your most likely patterns of dysfunction, if any.
The SaluGenecists expert system is a Baysian inference engine. Instead of treating each question as simply a yes or no, it treats each piece of information as a statistical probability. This way, each answer is appropriately weighted for its overall contribution to your clinical picture. Even better, the Baysian logic structure allows us to compensate for missing pieces of information, filling in probabilities based on national averages. While the underlying logic is incredibly complicated, the system is simple to use and understand.
When you register for our site, we start to build your personal profile. Each separate intake module, each daily diet, and each new piece of information you share with us will be folded together to form your personal recommendation profile. Members also are allowed to use the discussion board and the goal tracking feature. Non-members are welcome to use any of our intake questionnaires, but their information will not be saved and will not be cumulative from assessment to assessment.
Any personally identifiable information will be sent in encrypted fashion to protect your identity. Our website is built to meet HIPAA standards for reasonable safeguards. Be sure to set a password that is difficult for others to guess to fully ensure your personal data.
Because we respect your privacy, SaluGenecists promises not to share your health information with any third party. The only emails you receive from us will be those you sign up for. You will be able to cancel these reminders at any time.

Inputs

Our intake questionnaires are designed to best answer a specific question. Whether the question is risk related (e.g. risk of diabetes) or related to disease self-care (e.g. living with diabetes), our intake modules are designed to help identify common patterns of dysfunction related to the topic at hand. Other intakes are designed to quickly gather information on specific topics such as current medications and diet patterns.
Our artificial intelligence map combines each of the 1000+ potential input questions into a unified whole. Even though the questions are asked in separate areas, each question in the database is used to update each probability in our artificial intelligence tree each time you click submit. Navigating backward from your intervention list on the final report will demonstrate the relationship between the questions asked and the recommendations made.
We add new scientific articles to our database constantly. When the research changes, so does our artificial intelligence algorithm. You can feel confident that our recommendations are up to date with current research. Be sure to check back frequently to see if your recommendations have changed in any way due to new scientific findings.
Leave the questions you can’t answer marked don’t know. We expect that there will be missing pieces of information along the way. The Baysian artificial intelligence engine is designed to help predict the likelihood of each missing fact with a high degree of accuracy. Of course, the more information we have, the better the accuracy. Still, even with missing facts, we can usually confidently predict effective recommendations. By clicking on a recommendation, you can see the estimated percent chance for a treatment to help. Adding more information often will increase this percentage, but may decrease it, as well.
Many of our site features are color coded, based on the level of system certainty. Red areas are areas where the probability is very high, demanding immediate attention. This is followed by orange, yellow, blue, and green, in order. Green areas generally represent good health with low likelihood of problems.
Smart questions are questions drawn from our database based on emerging patterns of dysfunction. The smart questions attempt to hone in on your personal history in an order determined by the magnitude of the effect on our prediction model. Because the order is determined based on your previous answers, these questions will start with the most likely to be important, and will have less impact as you go on. Most people will find that after 5-10 screens of smart questions, the questions will begin to have little impact. At this point, you can return to the main page to recheck your recommendation report.
There are currently about 1500 questions in our question database. We add more questions all the time, but there are many things that we currently don’t have included. If there is a particular question that several of our users would like to see included, we will prioritize adding it. Please let us know if you have suggestions for additions.

Dashboard

By clicking the "home" link at the upper left of the screen, you should be able to navigate to all of our different intake modules and reports.
From the "continue personal assessment" link on the dashboard page, you can see the entire list of intakes that we currently have available. Because the information entry process is cumulative, the more data you enter, the more personalized the results will be. The best way to proceed is to identify the intake that is most related to your personal situation. For example, if your biggest concern is a current symptom, start with the symptom tracker intake. Note that you do not need to enter all of your information at one time. If you have registered for the site, your information will be here when you come back.
The reminders and goals feature sends a regular email to your account to help you track a particular aspect of your health care. Reminders will track your diet and lifestyle habits, showing you graphically how often you are meeting your recommendations. Similarly, the goals feature will send a regular email to track your progress as you make big changes to your health habits. You can opt out of these email reminders at any time.
We are working on several new features currently, including a message board for site members and a tool for diet analysis. These will be available soon.

Reports and Recommendations

The items on our reports are chosen based on the estimates derived from our artificial intelligence logic chain. Items are prioritized in order of how likely they are to be beneficial, with the most likely to help at the top of the list. If you would like to see why an item was chosen for the report, click the link provided from the report text. By navigating backward via the links, you can see which questions that you answered led to a particular recommendation.
Each questionnaire module has a different goal, and this goal is reflected in the list of recommendations provided. For instance, the steps recommended to prevent diabetes are likely to be quite different than the recommendations to help manage asthma symptoms. The "comprehensive recommendation report" link from the main dashboard page will show you all of your current recommendations from each of the different modules.
Each report updates every time you submit a new piece of information. As such, it is a good idea to check in to see what has changed each time you provide us with more personal history.
Currently, we do not sell any items through our site, nor do we make any product endorsements. If you cannot find a particular item in your local health food store, try one of the many online supplement providers. In the future, we plan on providing one-click ordering for custom supplement packages.
Each diet and lifestyle recommendation our system provides has a short and long version of written content. When you print your final report, be sure to ask for the long version. This will contain a detailed description of how to add a particular recommendation into your daily routine.

Other Features

From the main dashboard page go to the "set reminders and goals" link. From there, choose "edit subscription options." This will give you the ability to change your email address, revise the frequency, and change the start and end dates.
Follow the "unsubscribe from this reminder" link from your latest tracking email. This will take you to a page where you can unsubscribe.
If you hover your mouse over the "your system status" link on the upper left of the page, you’ll see a human figure pop-up in the middle of the screen. By clicking on the system status link, you can then explore how your bodily systems are functioning. Follow any link from the margin of the picture, and explore that particular body system.
The "your review" section on the lower left of the screen is designed to show you the most likely dysfunctions our artificial intelligence system has identified. This section updates each time you submit new information. In the animation, the two small figures represent the average person, and the large figure represents you. As the figure moves away from the green and toward the red, this is representative of a greater likelihood of dysfunction in this area. If you click on the % next to each slider bar, you’ll be able to read an explanation of what each dysfunction means.
This area shows your updated Total Health Score. This value is derived from more than 40 different patterns of risk and dysfunction, and is a single numeric value of overall health status. Scores over 800 indicate a very healthy person with few risk factors going forward. Scores of 400 or below indicate multiple high risk areas that demand immediate attention. Your health score should improve as you make major diet and lifestyle changes based on system recommendations. To find out how your Total Health Score was calculated, follow the "how it was calculated" link under the slider graphic.
© 2007 SaluGenecists