title: Knowledge representation for computer-aided planning of controlled clinical trials: the PATriCIa project.
abstract: The main thesis of the PATriCIa project is that a knowledge-based system can provide efficient and reliable support for biometricians as well as physicians involved in planning of controlled clinical trials, resulting in a higher quality of medical research. Structure and contents of study protocols are analyzed, and an object-oriented method for formally representing biometric knowledge is proposed. A study protocol can be generated from this formal representation. The programming language Prolog is used to realize the system based on a blackboard architecture. It is concluded that the knowledge representation method developed in the PATriCIa project is well suited for the purpose of generating study protocols for controlled clinical trials.
authors.affiliation: Institute for Medical Biometry and Informatics, University of Heidelberg, Germany. uwe@imbi.uni-heidelberg.de
authors.forename: U
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Haag
mesh_terms: D001699:Biometry / Q000379:methods; D018849:Controlled Clinical Trials as Topic / Q000379:methods*; D004341:Drug Evaluation / Q000592:standards; D005103:Expert Systems; D005858:Germany; D006801:Humans; D012107:Research Design; D014584:User-Computer Interface