Objective
During the last decade, the approach of evidence-based medicine has given rise to an increasing number of medical practice protocols. However, the work done on developing and distributing protocols outweighs the efforts on guaranteeing their quality. Indeed, anomalies like ambiguity and incompleteness are frequent in medical protocols. Recent efforts have tried to address the problem of protocol improvement, but they are not sufficient since they rely on informal processes and notations. As a result, many practical protocols are still ambiguous or incomplete. Even when ambiguity and incompleteness are intentional, so that organisational or personal practices can be deployed, it is important to make them explicit. A different approach, grounded on a formal representation of protocols, can answer these needs. The proposed solution relies on an appropriate protocol representation language that allows for a systematic verification by formal methods. During the last decade, the approach of evidence-based medicine has given rise to an increasing number of medical practice protocols. However, the work done on developing and distributing protocols outweighs the efforts on guaranteeing their quality. Indeed, anomalies like ambiguity and incompleteness are frequent in medical protocols. Recent efforts have tried to address the problem of protocol improvement, but they are not sufficient since they rely on informal processes and notations. As a result, many practical protocols are still ambiguous or incomplete. Even when ambiguity and incompleteness are intentional, so that organisational or personal practices can be deployed, it is important to make them explicit. A different approach, grounded on a formal representation of protocols, can answer these needs. The proposed solution relies on an appropriate protocol representation language that allows for a systematic verification by formal methods.
OBJECTIVES
The solution suggested to the problem of quality improvement of protocols consists in the utilisation of formal methods. It supposes the definition of an adequate protocol representation language, the development of techniques for the formal analysis of protocols described in that language, and more importantly, the evaluation of the feasibility of the approach based on the formalisation and verification of real-life medical protocols. For the first two aspects we rely on earlier work by consortium partners. The third aspect constitutes the main objective of this assessment project: evaluation of the feasibility of the use of formal methods for quality improvement of protocols.
DESCRIPTION OF WORK
The main objective of this project is the use of formal methods for the formalisation and verification of protocols. If protocols can be satisfactorily formalised, computerised support would become possible for many activities, e.g. patient management, or debugging, adaptation or maintenance of protocols. The steps with which we will carry out the project are the following:
1] Take two real-life reference protocols which cover a wide variety of protocol characteristics;
2] Formalise these reference protocols;
3] Check the formalisation in an exercise for the verification of interesting protocol properties;
4] Determine how many errors (expected and unexpected) can be uncovered in this way where step will be our measure of success. We will rely on earlier work by consortium partners, in particular, on the Asbru language for protocol description and on the Karlsruhe interactive verifier (KIV) system.
This leads to the following tasks:
(a) select reference protocols and model them in Asbru;
(b) define formal semantics for Asbru elements in KIV, and identify desirable/required properties to verify on these Asbru elements- Translate Asbru model of reference protocols into KIV;
(c) verify some of the properties on the Asbru-in-KIV reference protocols;
(d) evaluate the verification results.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
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Programme(s)
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Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Topic(s)
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Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
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Funding Scheme
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Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Coordinator
1081 HV AMSTERDAM
Netherlands
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.