An Active Database Approach to Computerised Clinical Guideline Management

Abstract

This paper presents a generic approach, and a case study practising the approach, based on a unified framework harnessing the event-conditionaction (ECA) rule paradigm and the active database for the management of computer-based clinical practice guidelines and protocols (CPGs). The CPG management is cast into three perspectives: specification, execution and manipulation, making up three management planes of our framework. The ECA rule paradigm is the core CPG representational formalism while the active database serves as the kernel within the CPG management environment facilitating integration with electronic healthcare records and clinical workflow. The benefits of the approach are: flexibility of CPG management; integration of CPGs with electronic patient records and clinical workflows; and incorporation of CPG management system into computerised healthcare systems.