Publications

We have compared six computer-interpretable guideline models in order to understand commonalities and differences among the guideline models and to explore the issues that need to be addressed in order to form a consensus on a set of common components, while recognizing that this must be done in a manner that allows research groups to continue their investigations of unique features. The models examined were: Asbru, EON, GLIF, GUIDE, PRODIGY, and PROforma. Collaborators from each group that created these models used their own formalism to model portions of two guidelines: the American College of Physicians – American Society of Internal Medicine’s guideline for managing chronic cough, and the Sixth Report of the Joint National Committee on Prevention, Detection, Evaluation, and Treatment of High Blood Pressure. A companion study, not presented here, compares the six models according to components that are necessary to represent the structure of a guideline model. This paper compares the guideline models according to components that are necessary to link a model with patient data-a key requirement for enabling patient- specific decision support. These components are: (1) expression language, (2) data interpretation, (3) medical concept model, and (4) patient information model.