title: Computational logic: a method for formal analysis of the ICU knowledge base.
abstract: The object of clinical computing is to support the making of clinical decisions. This takes place in an integrated context of care that involves processes of three different kinds: (1) the physiologic processes in the patient, (2) the processes of physiologic data as stored in, and moved within, a distributed computing system, and (3) the therapeutic and decision-making processes of the clinical staff. The clinical computing system is complex, and as we press it further to work as a partner in the complete care context, it tends to become unmanageably so. In this article, we try to suggest how one might begin using a formal mathematical theory, called 'computational logic,' to give theoretical analyses that might help one to understand the computing system and thereby to try to increase its ability to meet demands on it, and might help one to understand the care context as a whole. We examine the three levels, one at a time, looking for structural analogies between them, and trying to identify the ways that they are linked together. Computational logic provides us with a common set of notions for doing so.
authors.affiliation: Maryland Institute for Emergency Medical Services Systems, UMAB, Baltimore.
authors.forename: W P
authors.initials: WP
authors.lastname: Coleman
authors.forename: J H
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Siegel
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Giovannini
authors.forename: D P
authors.initials: DP
authors.lastname: Sanford
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: De Gaetano
mesh_terms: D001185:Artificial Intelligence; D003199:Computer Systems; D003422:Critical Care; D007362:Intensive Care Units; D008128:Logic; D008433:Mathematics; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D008991:Monitoring, Physiologic; D012984:Software