Reference: Das, A. K.; Shahar, Y.; Tu, S. W.; & Musen, M. A. A Temporal-Abstraction Mediator for Protocol-Based Decision-Support Systems. Knowledge Systems Laboratory, November, 1994.
Abstract: The inability of many clinical decision-support applications to integrate with existing databases limits the wide-scale deployment of such systems. To overcome this obstacle, we have designed a data-interpretation module that can be embedded in a general architecture for protocol-based reasoning and that can support the fundamental task of detecting temporal abstractions. We have developed this software module by coupling two existing systems--RESUME and Chronus--that provide complementary temporal-abstraction techniques at the application and the database levels, respectively. Their encapsulation into a single module thus can resolve the temporal queries of protocol planners with the domain-specific knowledge needed for the temporal-abstraction task and with primary time-stamped data stored in autonomous clinical databases. We show that other computer methods for the detection of temporal abstracitons do not scale up to the data- and knowledge-intensive environments of protocol-based decision-support systems.
Notes: Updated November 1994.