Origins of the Arden Syntax

George Hripcsak; Ove B Wigertz; Paul D Clayton

doi:10.1016/j.artmed.2015.05.006

Origins of the Arden Syntax

Artif Intell Med. 2018 Nov:92:7-9. doi: 10.1016/j.artmed.2015.05.006. Epub 2015 Jul 2.

Authors

George Hripcsak¹, Ove B Wigertz², Paul D Clayton³

Affiliations

¹ Department of Biomedical Informatics, Columbia University, 622 W 168th Street, PH20, New York, NY 10032, USA; Medical Informatics Services, NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, 622 W 168th Street, PH20, New York, NY 10032, USA. Electronic address: hripcsak@columbia.edu.
² Department of Medical Informatics, Linköping University, 58183 Linköping, Sweden.
³ Department of Biomedical Informatics, Columbia University, 622 W 168th Street, PH20, New York, NY 10032, USA; Department of Biomedical Informatics, University of Utah, 421 Wakara Way, Ste 140, Salt Lake City, UT 84108, USA.

PMID: 26254699
DOI: 10.1016/j.artmed.2015.05.006

Abstract

The Arden Syntax originated in the 1980's, when several knowledge-based systems began to show promise, but researchers recognized the burden of recreating these systems at every institution. Derived initially from Health Evaluation through Logical Processing (HELP) and the Regenstrief Medical Record System (RMRS), the Arden Syntax defines medical logic that can be encoded as independent rules, such as reminders and alerts, with the hope of creating a public library of rules. It was first vetted at an informatics retreat held in 1989 at Columbia University's Arden Homestead. The syntax was intended to be readable by clinician experts but to provide powerful array processing, which was derived largely a programming language called APL. The syntax was improved and implemented by a number of researchers and vendors in the early 1990's and was initially adopted by the consensus standards organization, the American Society for Testing and Materials.

Keywords: Arden Syntax; Automated decision support; Knowledge-based system.

Publication types

Historical Article

MeSH terms

Artificial Intelligence
Decision Support Systems, Clinical
Expert Systems*
History, 20th Century
Humans
Information Systems / history*
Information Systems / organization & administration*
Information Systems / standards
Medical Informatics
Programming Languages*