Flexibility through case handling in careflow systems: A case study of cutaneous melanoma

Abstract

This paper deals with a form of workflow flexibility called case handling as applied to healthcare systems, called careflow systems. We consider a case study of cutaneous melanoma to illustrate flexibility of careflow systems. We first present algorithmic version of medical guidelines for cutaneous melanoma and then model these medical guidelines using YAWL workflow design tool that is based on Petri nets model of computation. We consider both rigid and flexible models of related careflow systems. The YAWL flexible model uses case handling as a form of careflow flexibility. We compare both models from a perspective of functionality and usability.

Towards Adapting Scientific Workflow Systems to Healthcare Planning

“…To automate the process of guideline application, as well as avoid errors and improve the process, there is the study and development of Computer-Interpretable Guidelines (CIGs). There are several rich studies to provide support for clinicians, such as Clinical Decision Support Systems (El-Fakdi et al, 2012), Care Flow (Mikolajczak and Shenoy, 2010), Task Network Model (Ye et al, 2009), Clinical Pathway Management System (Ye et al, 2009), and Healthcare Information Management System (Dang et al, 2008). To be effective, "these tools need to be simple to use, easily available, and work with different information systems in changing environments" (Leong et al, 2007).…”

“…From the infrastructure point of view of ASBRU and Asgaard do not provide a flexible way to extend using plug-ins or modular components from third party developers, and do not implement security policies. (Mikolajczak and Shenoy, 2010) developed Careflow System, a WfMS developed for healthcare, using case handling technique to add the necessary flexibility inherent to the problem. The workflow can be executed in a flexible way because tasks are oriented to data and can be executed by different users.…”

“…There is, also, initiatives that combine CIG and WfMS: (Dang et al, 2008), (Mikolajczak and Shenoy, 2010), and (Schick et al, 2012). Those tools are able to extend the properties of WfMSs, specializing its features to be used in healthcare domain.…”

“…Some of the properties of WfMSs and CIGs, however, can be lost while processing a workflow or a guideline. (Mikolajczak and Shenoy, 2010), for example, add flexibility to workflows, but transfer to the user the responsibility to deal with context adaptations. (Schick et al, 2012) limits the use of external tools to those compliant with HL7 standards.…”

“…There are research on adding flexibility to WfMS in a healthcare scenario, such as (Dang et al, 2008), (Mikolajczak and Shenoy, 2010), and (Schick et al, 2012). There are, however, additional requirements to be fulfilled so that a WfMS can provide an adequate environment for practical clinic usage, such as preserve the systematization and work organization of clinicians, provide the traceability of actions, allow remote and collaborative work, among others.…”