A hybrid multi-layered approach to the integration of workflow and clinical guideline approaches

In BPM, several formalisms have been proposed to model Workflows. Almost independently, several formalisms have been developed to model clinical practice guidelines (CPG). Since the increasing informatization of healthcare processes is demanding for an integrated treatment of medical activities, some approaches have started to fill the gap between the Workflow and CPG areas. In most cases, such approaches have tried to adapt and/or extend one of the formalisms (either a Workflow or a CPG formalism) in order to cope with the whole set of phenomena. In this position paper, we argue in favor of an alternative hybrid approach, in which a CPG approach is used to focus on "physician-oriented" issues, a Workflow approach is used to cope with the related "business- oriented" issues, and the integration of them is obtained at the underlying semantic level, where general inferential mechanisms operate.