Integrated modelling of medical emergency response process for improved coordination and decision support. Issue 3 (23rd August 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Milis, George; Kolios, Panayiotis; Van Melick, Gaby; Staykova, Toni; Helsloot, Ira; Ellinas, Georgios; Panayiotou, Christos; Polycarpou, Marios
• Is Part Of: Healthcare technology letters. Volume 3:Issue 3(2016)
• Page Start: 197
• Page End: 204
• Publication Date: 2016-08-23
• Subjects: Petri nets -- decision making -- health care -- emergency services; medical emergency response process -- coordination modelling -- data flows -- data sources -- decision support -- event‐driven discrete‐time‐based dynamics -- Petri nets; Biomedical engineering -- Periodicals; Medical technology -- Periodicals; 610.28
• DOI: 10.1049/htl.2016.0039
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2053-3713

Abstract

Abstract : The medical emergency response comprises a domain with complex processes, encompassing multiple heterogeneous entities, from organisations involved in the response to human actors to key information sources. Due to the heterogeneity of the entities and the complexity of the domain, it is important to fully understand the individual processes in which the components are involved and their inter‐operations, before attempting to design any technological tool for coordination and decision support. This work starts with the gluing together and visualisation of the interactions of involved entities into a conceptual model, along the identified five workspaces of emergency response. The modelling visualises the domain processes, in a way that reveals the necessary communication and coordination points, the required data sources and data flows, as well as the required decision support needs. Work continues with the identification and modelling of the event‐driven discrete‐time‐based dynamics of the emergency response processes and their compositions, using Petri nets as the modelling technique. Subsequently, an integrated model of the process is presented, which facilitates the parallelisation of the tasks undertaken in an emergency incident.