Planning: supporting and optimizing clinical guidelines execution

Stud Health Technol Inform. 2008:139:101-20.

Abstract

A crucial feature of computerized clinical guidelines (CGs) lies in the fact that they may be used not only as conventional documents (as if they were just free text) describing general procedures that users have to follow. In fact, thanks to a description of their actions and control flow in some semiformal representation language, CGs can also take advantage of Computer Science methods and Information Technology infrastructures and techniques, to become executable documents, in the sense that they may support clinical decision making and clinical procedures execution. In order to reach this goal, some advanced planning techniques, originally developed within the Artificial Intelligence (AI) community, may be (at least partially) resorted too, after a proper adaptation to the specific CG needs has been carried out.

MeSH terms

  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Clinical Protocols*
  • Decision Making, Computer-Assisted
  • Decision Support Systems, Clinical / organization & administration*
  • Practice Guidelines as Topic*
  • Time Factors