Compliance checking of cancer-screening Careflows: an approach based on Computational Logic

Area of Science:

• Health Informatics
• Computational Logic
• Clinical Workflow Management

Background:

• Clinical guidelines and careflow systems are crucial for standardizing healthcare.
• Information and Communication Technology (ICT)-based solutions are being developed for managing careflows, focusing on specification, compliance, and administration.
• Existing solutions address various aspects of careflow management, highlighting the need for robust verification methods.

Purpose of the Study:

• To introduce the GPROVE framework, a Computational Logic-based system for the formal specification of careflows.
• To focus on verifying the compliance of process executions against specified careflow models.
• To demonstrate the practical application of GPROVE in a real-world healthcare scenario.

Main Methods:

• Formal specification of careflows using Computational Logic within the GPROVE framework.
• Development of compliance verification mechanisms to check process executions against formal models.
• Application of GPROVE to the Cancer Screening Guideline of the Emilia Romagna region.

Main Results:

• Successful formalization of the Cancer Screening Guideline in the GPROVE framework.
• Demonstration of compliance checking on actual process execution logs.
• Validation of GPROVE's capability to verify healthcare process adherence to specified models.

Conclusions:

• The GPROVE framework provides a robust method for formalizing and verifying healthcare careflows.
• Compliance checking using GPROVE can enhance the standardization and quality of healthcare services.
• The framework shows promise for improving the management and execution of clinical guidelines.