Clinical protocol development using Inter/IntraNet technology: the FENARETE system.

Abstract

In this work we present FENARETE, a software tool to design and distribute clinical protocols in an Inter/IntraNet framework. We consider a medical protocol as a clinical behaviour scheme, formally and clearly defined with sufficient details. Our work allows the knowledge content of any clinical protocol to be fully represented in a symbolic style. A computer based support tool that works as an interface between clinicians and the protocol knowledge base is regarded by the authors as a basic building block developing an integrated environment for medical protocols design and management. The FENARETE application has been developed in Java and it is available for any Internet-linked machine with a Java-compatible browser.