Conformance verification of clinical guidelines in presence of computerized and human-enhanced processes

Abstract

Clinical Guidelines (CGs) capture medical evidence and describe standardized high quality health processes. Their adoption increases the quality of the service offered by health departments, with direct advantage for treated patients. However, their application in real cases is often tempered by a number of factors like the context, the specific case itself, administrative processes, and the involved personnel. In this chapter we analyse the issues related to the problem of representing CGs in a formal way, and to reason about the differences between what is prescribed by CGs, and what is observed during their application/execution. Our approach is based on a general, abstract framework that should be flexible enough to cope with the raised issues. Possible technical solutions are also presented and their limits discussed.