Kabisa – interactive training software
What is Kabisa?
Kabisa, a computer-based tutorial on tropical and subtropical medicine, has been in development since 1992. The first version was built with foxpro, the second with C++, the third and fourth with MS Access XP, and the last with Delphi.
From the perspective of developing countries, it is a didactic tool that challenges the student with cases on a randomly generated disease with randomly selected presenting symptoms that are related to the disease. The student should find the appropriate diagnosis with a set of disease characteristics in the context of a hospital in developing countries. The logical engine is based upon both pattern recognition and Bayesian logic. Moreover, the logic behind Kabisa is threshold driven, which means that the threshold should be reached and no strong excluders should still be available for a diagnosis to be made.
From the perspective of western countries, the programme also includes a Bayesian diagnostic tool for imported fever, based on a prospectively generated database of over 2,000 patients. It also suggests new questions and tests based on user-provided data.
Who was involved?
The software was written by Luc Kestens (PhD), Koenraad Blot (MD), Stefano Laganà and Rik Van Hauwe.
The logic was developed by Jef Van den Ende, Luc Kestens, Koenraad Blot and Zeno Bisoffi.
The images were brought together and processed by Erwin Van den Ende.
The implementation in actual pedagogy was organised by Louis Vermeulen.
Conceptual and technical support can be obtained from Jef Van den Ende.
Financial support was provided by The Institute of Tropical Medicine and the Belgian Development Agency.
How to install?
Windows users
First, check if you have a 64-bit or (an older) 32-bit operating system. Create a new map on your desktop (or somewhere else, but not read-only) and name it "KABISA". Download the ZIP file and extract it in this map. Make sure to always keep all files of Kabisa in this map. Click on the EXE file to start. You may create a shortcut on the desktop for your convenience.
Kabisa 64-bit (.zip)
Kabisa 32-bit (zip.)
Mac users
Download the ZIP file on your desktop. Unzip it there, or create a new map and name it "KABISA". Click on the unzipped map to start Kabisa (if you click on the ZIP file, it will not work).
Kabisa Mac (.zip)
Unfortunately, Kabisa doesn't work on macOS Ventura, the latest version of Mac's operating system. We are currently working on a web version. More on that soon!
Troubleshooting
Windows users
When opening Kabisa, the following message pops up: "cannot load vendor library [ibtogo64.dll]"
This means the ZIP has not been unpacked correctly in one single directory, or you tried to open Kabisa by directly clicking the ZIP. Please restart unzipping if necessary.
When opening Kabisa, your computer states that some other DLL is missing.
Some older versions of Windows miss a runtime C++ library DLL. Please visit the following web pages and execute all four EXE files:
Visual C++ Redistributable Packages for Visual Studio 2013
Visual C++ Redistributable for Visual Studio 2015
Mac users
Your Mac computer refuses to instal a program from an unknown publisher.
Your computer refuses this for security reasons. There's no reason to panic. Follow these instructions.
Kabisa is simply not working.
You may have clicked on the ZIP file instead of the unzipped map.
