BPMN4CP: Design and implementation of a BPMN extension for clinical pathways

The Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN) is a standard for business process modeling that is very common in professional practice due to its expressiveness, the well defined meta model and the possibility of workflow integration. This research article aims to apply the BPMN for the representation of clinical pathways in order to utilize its benefits in the clinical context. BPMN provides a set of generic process modeling elements what makes it necessary to extend the language by domain-specific concepts from the field of clinical pathways (e.g., evidence indicators). Therefore, the extension method of Stroppi et al. (2011) was applied and extended in order to facilitate a systematic design and development. This research article provides the analysis of requirements and relevant concepts for modeling clinical pathways. Based on a domain ontology, need for extension is identified and the valid BPMN extension meta model is designed by the construction of a conceptional domain model and the corresponding BPMN extension model. The evolved extension ”BPMN4CP” is demonstrated by an example process of wisdom tooth treatment.