O-LevelComputer ScienceAutomated and emerging technologies2210/12 · May/June 2025 · Q523 Marks

A hospital has computers and technology that it uses when caring for its patients.

(a)One computer is an expert system that is used to help diagnose a patient's illness. The doctor inputs the patient's symptoms into an interface and a diagnosis is output. Describe how the expert system decides the diagnosis.[3]
(b)(i)The hospital has a robot that is used to perform surgery. A doctor controls the robot from a different location to perform surgery on a patient. One feature of the robot is that it has electrical components. Give two examples of the electrical components of a robot. 1 2[2]
(b)(ii)Explain the advantages of using the robot to perform surgery.[4]
(b)(iii)Explain one disadvantage of using the robot to perform surgery.[2]
(c)(i)Patients use a web page to log into their account to pay for the treatment they have received in the hospital. The patient enters the uniform resource locator (URL) for the web page into their browser and the web page is requested and displayed. Complete and annotate the diagram to show how the web page is requested for the patient. Patient's computer www.cihospital.com URL input into patient's computer[6]
(c)(ii)A patient is making a payment through a secure connection. The secure connection is created using the secure socket layer (SSL) protocol. Explain how a secure connection is created using the SSL protocol.[6]

This question uses a diagram from the original paper, which isn't shown here. Open the full paper from the past papers archive to see it.

Mark scheme

Marking points from the official mark scheme (May/June 2025). The mark or mark type is shown in brackets.

[3] Three from: • The inference engine is used ... • ... to decide which questions to ask the user ... • ... based on the previous data input. • Symptoms input are located in/compared to knowledge base. • ... then applies the rule base to the knowledge base (to decide the diagnosis)
[2] Any two from: Examples: • Sensors • Microprocessors • Actuators
[4] Any four from: Examples: • a doctor doesn't need to travel to the hospital to do the surgery. • so it can be done by any specialist/doctor in the world. • so it can be done immediately without needing to wait for travel time // reduces the waiting time for the patient. • so the doctor may be better at the surgery as they won't be tired from travel. • so travel costs are saved. • Surgery with robots enhances precision/accuracy. • so a smaller incision can be made. • so the recovery time may be shorter. • as the components used to enter the body can be much smaller than a human hand. • so the surgery is safer/ more hygienic // by example e.g. can stop the doctor needing to be near an infectious patient. • The surgery may have a higher rate of success
[2] Two from (one for a point and one for the matching expansion): Examples: • The internet connection could be lost/delayed ... • so the surgery may not be able to continue. • The robot will be expensive to buy/maintain ... • this money could have been spent on other causes. • The robot could be hacked ... • and endanger the patient's life. • Data could be corrupted in transmission ... • changing the nature of the instruction for the robot. • The robot's hardware could malfunction ... • so the surgery cannot continue
[6] One mark for each correct part of the diagram. The diagram: • Web browser identified as software used to send URL/requests or receives IP address/web page data • URL/domain sent to DNS • DNS searches for matching IP address • If not found sent to another DNS • IP address sent from DNS to patient's computer • Request sent from patient's computer to web server (for web page) • Web page/HTML data sent from web server to patient's computer
[6] Any six from: • Encrypted connection established ... • ... using asymmetric encryption • ... to make any data sent meaningless • The web browser asks the web server to identify itself. • ... by sending its digital certificate. • The digital certificate is authenticated/validated by the web browser. • If the certificate is authenticated/valid, the connection is secure/the transaction can begin. • If the certificate is not authenticated/invalid, the connection is not secure/the transaction is cancelled/rejected/user is notified