Hannes Schlieter

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.

From Clinical Practice Guideline to Clinical Pathway - Issues of Reference Model-Based Approach

Health care systems are facing new challenges such as the aging population, the increasing amount of chronicle diseases and the rapid development of medical technologies. The increasing of the related health care costs lead to the limits of affordability of health care systems. Building Health networks and standardization of clinical processes are the main trend facing these challenges. Actually, the main instrument for documentation and managing of clinical processes are Clinical Pathways (CPs). They allow to transfer evident knowledge in practice and they are the central point of clinical quality management. In contrast, Clinical Practice Guidelines (CPGs) aggregate the evident medical knowledge in a compact form to support physicians in their practice. In the paper analyze the model-driven development of CP for a health network. Therefore, we work out problems of integration. Finally, the paper shows aspect for a model-based integration of CPGs in CPs. These findings are proofed with the help of the documentation of the regional stroke-network called SOS-NET.

Requirements-based development of BPMN extensions: The case of clinical pathways

In recent years, the Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN) has evolved to one of the most applied modelling General Purpose Languages in the Business Process Management discipline. Due to its application in different domains, it becomes frequently necessary to extend the BPMN by domain-specific concepts. Extending the BPMN fosters an adequate communication between system engineers and domain experts and enhances the semantically correct representation of the domain. Therefore, the BPMN meta-model provides an extension mechanism. However, there is a remarkable lack in procedure models for the design of such extensions. This research article outlines an extension method that focuses on domain analysis, extension requirements and the derivation of domain-specific extension concepts within BPMN. Therefore, the method of STROPPI ET AL. (2011) is extended in regard to domain analysis. The approach is motivated and demonstrated by the case of Clinical Pathways (CPs).

Modellierung komplexer Entscheidungssituationen in Prozessmodellen – Anwendung am Beispiel der Tumorklassifikation bei Weichteilsarkomen

Geschaftsprozessen kommt eine zentrale Bedeutung bei der Realisierung der Unternehmensziele und der Gestaltung der Unternehmensstruktur zu. Prozessmodelle stellen ein etabliertes Werkzeug zu ihrer Dokumentation, Analyse und Optimierung dar. Sie eignen sich auserdem zur Unterstutzung der Informationssystementwicklung und Forderung der Kommunikation zwischen inner- und uberbetrieblichen Akteuren unterschiedlicher Professionen. Geschaftsprozesse, insb.

Reference Modelling in Health Care - State of the Art and Proposal for the Construction of a Reference Model

The quality of medical services gains increasing importance in the consumer perception. Up to 2003, the outpatient physicians had sole responsibility for the implementation of a quality management system. To standardise the utilisation of such systems, the legislature decided on the mandatory implementation of a quality management system (QMS) by 2009. However, the introduction was slow due to very time consuming and costly processes. Knowledge about the own processes is an essential part of QMS. Process models are the common tool to document them, as well as being effective instruments to manage organisational structures. To make the design process of such models more effective, reference models are built to foster the reuse of common and best practice solutions in similar cases. This paper aims to apply the theoretical knowledge of reference modelling in the context of the ambulatory sector. It presents the empirically based construction of a reference model. Therefore structured interviews were carried out with physicians of various disciplines.

Information systems engineering in healthcare – an evaluation of the state of the art of operational process design

Seamless integration of medical evidence and organisational requirements into clinical process management is a non-trivial and reoccurring task. This leads a search for strong methodological as well as IT technical support by large industrial companies and leading research teams. Contributions of information systems research – especially conceptual modeling theory – currently play a minor role in clinical process management. The present study provides indications why current approaches are not suitable for process management in clinical practice. In this article, we identify the necessary steps in clinical process management that suffer from a lack of methodological support. The paper addresses researchers and clinicians who wish to implement a life-cycle management process for their clinical pathways.

BPMN4CP Revised -- Extending BPMN for Multi-perspective Modeling of Clinical Pathways

Clinical Pathways (CPs) can be seen as business processes of hospitals or clinical institutions. Modeling these pathways is an emerging field of research, as it provides promising benefits for systems integration, quality management and documentation. The Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN) provides a range of process-related concepts but naturally lacks in representing specific aspects from the CP domain. Therefore, the BPMN extension BPMN4CP was designed in a previous research project. In accordance with research guidelines from Design Science, the extension ran through an iteration based on its practical application within a telemedical project. Based on several new requirements, the extension was revised regarding to the integration of resources, documents, objectives and quality indicators. These concepts were assigned to particular perspectives and diagrams in order to support model complexity management and provide appropriate diagrams for respective stakeholders. In order to provide a commonly usable extension, these enhancements were implemented as BPMN meta model extension.

Certification of Service-oriented eHealth Platforms

Certification of interoperability is an important quality measure, which can foster the success of eHealth projects. Often these projects test and certify interoperability for specific purposes. The achievement of long-term interoperability is often not in the scope of these projects. In this paper we describe the importance of expandability for the long-term interoperability. Further we show, how a structured criteria catalogue for the certification process can be derived for these two quality factors.

Clinical processes from various angles - amplifying BPMN for integrated hospital management

The design and management of information systems is driven by model-oriented approaches on different levels of abstraction. For instance, enterprise models link the organizational action system and corresponding information systems. Enterprise models are generally perceived as measures to close the gap between business and IT, as it is in the healthcare domain. Clinical Pathways (CPs) represent value-added processes of hospitals and are typically described by respective process modeling languages like BPMN. However, a solitary focus on processes is insufficient for utilizing the potential of the model. Instead, it is rather advisable to consider various perspectives in order to completely represent the organizational action system of a hospital. We therefore propose to extend clinical process models with accordingly required perspectives for the representation of satellite objects, e.g. medical resources. Based on previous work, this paper motivates the approach of (process-based) integrated hospital modeling and presents the architecture and design of a revised BPMN extension for multi-perspective modeling. The applicability of the proposed BPMN extension is demonstrated by modeling a CP part for the treatment of stroke patients, which explicitly integrates the process and resource perspective.

Konzeptuelle Modellierung im klinischen Umfeld

ZusammenfassungenProzessmodelle finden im Gesundheitswesen Anwendung in der Dokumentation und Gestaltung der Ablauforganisation. Die Abstimmung der Modelle von Fachgesellschaften und Kliniken ist ein komplizierter, zeitaufwendiger Prozess, der nicht nur durch medizinisches, sondern auch durch organisatorisches und technisches Wissen bestimmt ist. Der Beitrag demonstriert die Nützlichkeit fachkonzeptueller Modelle für ein Management von Prozesslandschaften im klinischen Umfeld. Betriebswirtschaftliche Relevanz ergibt sich aus der beschleunigten Umsetzung der medizinischen Leitlinien in klinische Behandlungspfade.