RESUME: a temporal-abstraction system for patient monitoring

RESUME is a system that performs temporal abstraction of time-stamped data. The temporal-abstraction task is crucial for planning treatment, for executing treatment plans, for identifying clinical problems, and for revising treatment plans. The RESUME system is based on a model of three basic temporal-abstraction mechanisms: point temporal abstraction, a mechanism for abstracting the values of several parameters into a value of another parameter; temporal inference, a mechanism for inferring sound logical conclusions over a single interval or two meeting intervals; and temporal interpolation, a mechanism for bridging nonmeeting temporal intervals. Making explicit the knowledge required for temporal abstraction supports the acquisition and the sharing of that knowledge. We have implemented the RESUME system using the CLIPS knowledge-representation shell. The RESUME system emphasizes the need for explicit representation of temporal-abstraction knowledge, and the advantages of modular, task-specific but domain-independent architectures for building medical knowledge-based systems.