Analyzing medical processes

  • Authors:

  • Bin Chen;George S. Avrunin;Elizabeth A. Henneman;Lori A. Clarke;Leon J. Osterweil;Philip L. Henneman

  • Affiliations:

  • University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA, USA;University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA, USA;University of Massaschusetts, Amherst, MA, USA;University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA, USA;University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA, USA;Tufts-Baystate Medical Center, Springfield, MA, USA

  • Venue:
  • Proceedings of the 30th international conference on Software engineering
  • Year:
  • 2008

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Abstract

This paper shows how software engineering technologies used to define and analyze complex software systems can also be effective in detecting defects in human-intensive processes used to administer healthcare. The work described here builds upon earlier work demonstrating that healthcare processes can be defined precisely. This paper describes how finite-state verification can be used to help find defects in such processes as well as find errors in the process definitions and property specifications. The paper includes a detailed example, based upon a real-world process for transfusing blood, where the process defects that were found led to improvements in the process.