Workflow Management Applications Research Articles

ProjectFlow: a configurable workflow management application for point of care research.

To best meet our point-of-care research (POC-R) needs, we developed ProjectFlow, a configurable, clinical research workflow management application. In this article, we describe ProjectFlow and how it is used to manage study processes for the Diuretic Comparison Project (DCP) and the Research Precision Oncology Program (RePOP). The Veterans Health Administration (VHA) is the largest integrated health care system in the United States. ProjectFlow is a flexible web-based workflow management tool specifically created to facilitate conduct of our clinical research initiatives within the VHA. The application was developed using the Grails web framework and allows researchers to create custom workflows using Business Process Model and Notation. As of January 2021, ProjectFlow has facilitated management of study recruitment, enrollment, randomization, and drug orders for over 10 000 patients for the DCP clinical trial. It has also helped us evaluate over 3800 patients for recruitment and enroll over 370 of them into RePOP for use in data sharing partnerships and predictive analytics aimed at optimizing cancer treatment in the VHA. The POC-R study design embeds research processes within day-to-day clinical care and leverages longitudinal electronic health record (EHR) data for study recruitment, monitoring, and outcome reporting. Software that allows flexibility in study workflow creation and integrates with enterprise EHR systems is critical to the success of POC-R. We developed a flexible web-based informatics solution called ProjectFlow that supports custom research workflow configuration and has ability to integrate data from existing VHA EHR systems.

Mobile edoclink: A Mobile Workflow and Document Management Application for Healthcare Institutions

The exponential growth of mobile devices, like smart phones and tablets, has led to a growing ubiquitous computing paradigm, in which computing is distributed and available anytime, anywhere and supported by different devices. The document and workflow management in organizations is made through computers connected to one or several servers via a networking infrastructure. The emergence of ubiquitous computing paradigm leads those solutions to be adapted for mobile platforms. Thus, users tasks can be done in a more efficient way due to the availability of information wherever they are using a mobile device, improving both the time needed to complete tasks and organizations’ efficiency. In this paper we present the mobile version of edoclink document and workflow management solution. Edoclink system was developed by Link Consulting© and is widely implemented in several healthcare institutions.

The use of interorganisational ICT in United States construction projects

In recent research, the use of ICT applications in real time construction projects have been documented and analysed extensively. However, there is a need for identifying and analysing in-depth the mechanisms influencing the use of interorganisational ICT applications and for solutions to eliminate potential barriers to the successful use of ICT. A model is developed providing insights in these mechanisms. Based on this model and expert interviews in the United States construction industry directions for solutions to barriers to the successful use of interorganisational ICT — document management applications, workflow management applications, and product modelling applications — in construction projects are formulated. These solutions focus on stimulating the personal motivation to use ICT, the external motivation to use this technology, and facilitating conditions in terms of knowledge and skills and acting opportunities to use ICT.

Decision support for health care: the PROforma evidence base

Cancer Research UK has developed PROforma, a formal language for modelling clinical processes, along with associated tools for creating decision support, care planning, clinical workflow management and other applications. The PROforma method has been evaluated in a variety of settings: in primary health care (prescribing, referral of suspected cancer patients, genetic risk assessment) and in specialist care of patients with breast cancer, leukaemia, HIV infection and other conditions. About nine years of experience have been gained with PROforma technologies. Seven trials of decision support applications have been published or are in preparation. Each of these has shown significant positive effects on a variety of measures of quality and/or outcomes of care. This paper reviews the evidence base for the clinical effectiveness of these PROforma applications, and previews the CREDO project -- a multi-centre trial of a complex PROforma application for supporting integrated breast cancer care across primary and secondary care settings.

Disconnection Prediction in Mobile Ad hoc Networks for Supporting Cooperative Work

We're investigating a specific pervasive architecture that can maintain continuous connections among MANET devices. We're targeting this architecture for computer-supported-cooperative-work (CSCW) and workflow management applications that would constitute the coordination layer. The basic problem of such an architecture is, how do you predict possible disconnections of devices, to let the coordination layer appropriately address connection anomalies? To solve this problem, we've developed a technique for predicting disconnections in MANETS. This technique serves as the basic layer of an innovative pervasive architecture for cooperative work and activity coordination in MANETS. We believe that in emergency scenarios, our proposed pervasive architecture can provide more effective coordination among team members.

A comprehensive approach to flexibility in workflow management systems

Flexibility has recently grown to be one of the major research topics in the area of workflow management. In this paper we focus on flexibility of workflow management applications, in contrast to flexibility of the implementation of workflow management systems. In a case study we show the necessity of flexibility in workflow management applications. This flexibility can roughly be classified into flexibility, which is provided by the workflow type, and flexibility, which goes beyond the scope of the workflow type and has additionally to be provided by a workflow management system. We call this flexibility by selection and flexibility by adaption, respectively. We point out that the modeling process as a main aspect of flexibility by adaption has to be treated as a CSCW scenario. The classification leads to a structured overall concept for flexibility in workflow management applications.