Visualizing the logic of a clinical guideline: a case study in childhood immunization

IMM/Graph is a visual model designed to help knowledge-base developers understand and refine the guideline logic for childhood immunization. The IMM/Graph model is domain-specific and was developed to help build a knowledge-based system that makes patient-specific immunization recommendations. A "visual vocabulary" models issues specific to the immunization domain, such as (1) the age a child is first eligible for each vaccination dose, (2) recommended, "past due" and maximum ages, (3) minimum waiting periods between doses, (4) the vaccine brand or preparation to be given, and (5) the various factors affecting the time course of vaccination. Several lessons learned in the course of developing IMM/Graph include the following: (1) The intended use of the model may influence the choice of visual presentation; (2) There is a potentially interesting interplay between the use of visual and textual information in creating the visual model; (3) Visualization may help a development team better understand a complex clinical guideline and may also help highlight areas of incompleteness.