Guideline-Based Decision Support System for Nursing Homes: A Case Study with the Management of Malnutrition

Nursing home (NH) residents are known to be at risk of preventable adverse events due to inadequate monitoring or failure to provide necessary treatments. Missed care has been partially explained by nurses' lack of knowledge. We describe a guideline-based decision support system for the management of malnutrition in NHs. Three steps are distinguished: screening, therapeutic management, and follow-up. Clinical practice guidelines have been modeled as decision trees and formalized as IF-THEN rules to be triggered by electronic health records data (e.g., weight, albuminemia). We propose a visualization of recommendations as a dashboard of gauges displaying both current and previous levels of malnutrition to inform on the effect of therapeutic management and facilitate a correct follow-up.