PLAN: a framework and specification language with an event-condition-action (ECA) mechanism for clinical test request protocols

It has been generally recognised that the need to improve the quality of health care has lead to a strong demand for clinical protocols/guidelines supported by computer systems in their creation and execution. How to efficiently and effectively manage, query and manipulate the computerised clinical test protocols has posed a major challenge but received little research attention sofar. This paper addresses this issue from a unified approach based on an active rule mechanism. This paper first presents PLAN-a generic modelling framework and specification language with an Event-Condition-Action (ECA) mechanism for clinical test request protocols. It then discusses in detail components of the test protocol and patient test plan expressed in PLAN. The implementation of PLAN is also briefly discussed. This research is unique in that it introduces an active ECA mechanism into test protocol modelling and specification, and emphasises the importance of the efficient and effective management of computerised rest request protocols.