The Formalization of Medical Protocols: Easier Said than Done. the Formalization of Medical Protocols: Easier Said than Done

i-Abstract The role of medical protocols is becoming more and more important in the medical field. Within the Protocure project it has been shown that the quality of medical protocols can be improved by formalization, something much easier said than done. The formalization turns out to be a very time-consuming task resulting in a formal protocol that is much more complex than the original version and the relation with this original protocol remains unclear. This graduation project was intended to improve the insight in formal protocols and possibilities to the speed up of the formalization process. The Guideline Markup Tool, developed to support the formalization process, has been used to define and visualize all the relationships between a formal protocol and its original version. During this linking task the tool has also been evaluated for its usability. The most surprising result of the linking is that it uncovered anomalies that had been introduced during the formalization process. Furthermore the linking provided a division between the parts of the formal protocol that are related to the original protocol and the parts that aren't. This is an important indicator for the causes of the increased complexity of formal protocols. Finally reappearing patterns, whose reuse could support the formalization process in the future, have been identified in the formal protocols. Using the Guideline Markup Tool and its linking functionality, resolving the complexity issues and using the identified patterns all turn out to be challenges for improving the formalization process.