CARE-PARTNER: a computerized knowledge-support system for stem-cell post-transplant long-term follow-up on the World-Wide-Web

Evidence-based practice in medicine promotes the performance of medicine based upon proven and validated practice. The CARE-PARTNER system presented here is a computerized knowledge-support system for stem-cell post-transplant long-term follow-up (LTFU) care on the WWW, which means that it monitors the quality of the knowledge both of its own knowledge-base and of its users. Its aim is to support the evidence-based practice of the LTFU clinicians and of the home-town physicians who actually care for the transplanted patients. Currently, three fundamental characteristics of CARE-PARTNER are accountable for its knowledge-support function: the quality of its knowledge-base, its availability on the WWW, and its learning from experience capability. As a matter of fact, the integration of a case-based reasoner in the reasoning framework enables the system to introspectively study its results, and to learn from its successes and failures, thus confronting the quality of the guidelines and pathways it reuses to the reality and complexity of the clinical cases.