Protocure: supporting the development of medical protocols through formal methods

Medical guidelines and protocols describe the optimal care for a specific group of patients and therefore, when properly applied, improve the quality of patient care. During the last decade, a large number of medical guidelines and protocols have been published. However, the work done on developing and disseminating them far outweighs the efforts on guaranteeing their quality. Indeed, anomalies like ambiguity and incompleteness are frequent in medical guidelines and protocols. An approach grounded on a formal representation, can answer these needs, as we have demonstrated in the Protocure project'. The Protocure II project will aim at integrating formal methods in the life cycle of guidelines.