Modeling clinical protocols using semantic MediaWiki: the case of the Oncocure project

A computerized Decision Support Systems (DSS) can improve the adherence of the clinicians to clinical guidelines and protocols. The building of a prescriptive DSS based on breast cancer treatment protocols and its integration with a legacy Electronic Patient Record is the aim of the Oncocure project. An important task of this project is the encoding of the protocols in computer-executable form — a task that requires the collaboration of physicians and computer scientists in a distributed environment. In this paper, we de- scribe our project and how semantic wiki technology was used for the encoding task. Semantic wiki technology features great flexibility, allowing to mix unstructured information and semantic annota- tions and automatically generate the final model with minimal adaptation cost. These features render semantic wikis natural candidates for small to medium scale modeling tasks, where the adaptation and training effort of bigger systems cannot be justified. This approach is not constrained to a specific protocol modeling language, but can be used as a collaborative tool for other languages. When implemented, our DSS is expected to reduce the cost of care while improving the adherence to the guideline and the quality of the documentation.