title: Models and inference methods for clinical systems: a principled approach.
abstract: Previous papers have argued for the existence of three different models in many clinical information systems--for the medical record, for inference in guidelines, and for concepts and re-usable facts. This paper presents a principled approach to deciding which information belongs in each model based on the nature of the queries or inference to be performed: necessary or contingent, open or closed world, algorithmic vs heuristic. It then discusses an important class of systems--"ontologically indexed knowledge bases"--and issues of metadata within this framework.
authors.affiliation: Department of Computer Science, University of Manchester, Manchester, England M13 9PL, UK.
authors.forename: Alan L
authors.initials: AL
authors.lastname: Rector
authors.forename: Jeremy
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Rogers
authors.forename: Adel
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Taweel
mesh_terms: D000043:Abstracting and Indexing; D020000:Decision Support Systems, Clinical; D007256:Information Systems; D007257:Information Theory; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D009626:Terminology as Topic; D018875:Vocabulary, Controlled