Model checking for clinical guidelines: an agent-based approach

In this paper, we propose a new computer-based approach to model clinical guidelines, adopting the agent-based paradigm. We first show how clinical guidelines can be modelled in an agent like fashion in the specification language Promela of the model checker SPIN. Then, we describe the impact of such a move: by using SPIN model-checking facilities, one can automatically prove a wide range of properties concerning the modeled guidelines. As a proof of concept, we apply such a methodology to the clinical guidelines in GLARE, a domain-independent prototypical system for acquiring, representing and executing clinical guidelines, which has been built within a 7-year project with Azienda Ospedaliera San Giovanni Battista in Turin (one of the largest hospitals in Italy).