The EON model of intervention protocols and guidelines

We present a computational model of treatment protocols abstracted from implemented systems that we have developed previously. In our framework, a protocol is modeled as a hierarchical plan where high-level protocol steps are decomposed into descriptions of more specific actions. The clinical algorithms embodied in a protocol are represented by procedures that encode the sequencing, looping, and synchronization of protocol steps. The representation allows concurrent and optional protocol steps. We define the semantics of a procedure in terms of an execution model that specifies how the procedure should be interpreted. We show that the model can be applied to an asthma guideline different from the protocols for which the model was originally constructed.