Computerization of Clinical Guidelines: an Application of Medical Document Processing

Abstract

Clinical Guidelines are being developed as a tool to promote Best Practice in Medicine. They are usually defined as “systematically developed statements to assist practitioner and patient decisions about appropriate Healthcare for specific clinical circumstances” (Institute of Medicine, 1990). The Institute’s Committee on Practice Guidelines further clarified this definition by specifying appropriate care as: “the expected health benefit exceeds the expected negative consequences by a sufficient margin that the care is worth providing”.