Lightweight Interacting Patient Treatment Processes

Abstract

Processes concerning the diagnosis and treatment of patients cannot be straightjacketed into traditional production-like workflows. They can be best characterized as weakly-connected interacting light-weight workflows where tasks reside at different levels of granularity, and for each individual patient a doctor proceeds in a step-by-step way deciding what next steps be taken. Classical workflow notations fall short in supporting these patient processes as they have been designed to support monolithic processes. Classical notations (WF-nets (work flow nets), BPMN (Business Process Model and Notation), EPCs (Electronic Prescriptions for Controlled Substances), etc.) assume that a workflow process can be modeled by specifying the life-cycle of a single case in isolation. To address these problems, the authors present an extension of the Proclets framework which allows for dividing complex entangled processes into simple autonomous fragments. Additionally, increased emphasis is placed on interaction related aspects such that fragment instances for individual patients can cooperate in any desired way. The authors describe an implementation of the Proclets framework. Proclets have been added to the open-source Workflow Management System YAWL to better support inter-workflow support functionalities.