This is an attempt to illustrate the possibilities of using Object Repertory for solving the prize case i.e. we try to present how the process would work if the Object Repertory already existed.

Let's just take the main symptom to present the process.

There are no rubrics in Object Repertory, the symptoms are recorded as a network of interconnected objects, so we need to somehow specify what we are looking for. The most thorough way would be to record the symptom in the same format as is used for recording other symptoms within Object Repertory and then just hit the SOLVE button and wait until the software figures out the best matching remedy for the situation – by browsing and evaluating the existing networks of symptoms and the related ontological connections. On the image below is a visual representation of how you would record this single symptom (yes, it is a single symptom, albeit a complicated one).

While you have probably gone “Hell, no!” upon seeing the graph, it is really not THAT complicated, if you study it a bit. It takes a bit of getting used to, but once you get into it, you should be able to do it really quickly. In fact, you need to do the same thing in your mind anyway, in order to be able to understand the symptom fully and completely.

But even if you don't feel up to it (recording the symptoms directly), you could use an indirect approach and start with the things you ARE able to define easily.

• You could start with “pain in the forehead” and the software could assist you by offering different kinds of pain – sharp or dull, continuous, spasmodic or pulsating etc.
• The software would then try to elicit some more information from you, with regards to the pain – how is it ameliorated or aggravated (pressure, touch, open air, heat, motion etc.), inquire about its intensity etc.
• Then the software could inquire whether or not there are some symptoms preceding, concomitant or following the present symptom (pulsating pain in the forehead) – this would lead you to specify the accelerated pulse

So, step by step, the software would ask you such questions and if you answered correctly, you would still end up with a graph similar to the one shown above, the only difference being the questions and options offered to you by the software instead of you defining them directly. This mode of recording the symptoms can be used with great advantage as a case analysis helper tool. You just start with the phenomena presented by the patient and slowly, utilizing the pertinent questions offered by the software, work your way to a full symptom.