COSSAC

Introduction

Development and trial of a multidisciplinary clinical decision support system for the management of breast cancer.

Modern clinical practice has been described as "a humanly impossible task". As the knowledge base of medicine continues to grow the demands on those who are required to deliver consistent, high quality, safe and accountable care is effectively impossible to satisfy unaided. Among the most promising new developments that may help to address this challenge and reduce the burdens on clinical and other healthcare professionals are point-of-care information and decision support systems.

CREDO videoA video has been made to explain the aims of the CREDO project and to demonstrate how we envisage the technology will be used in the care of cancer patients. The video is available in two different versions aimed at cancer professionals and clinical researchers, and patients respectively. It is also available in a variety of formats.

The PROforma decision and process modelling language is the foundation for CREDO. Together with the Tallis authoring and deployment software it is a versatile basis for building decision support, workflow and agent-based services. Its development was funded by Cancer Research UK and it has therefore been used for many cancer related applications though it can be used for a range of other purposes.

The goal of the CREDO project is to build and trial an integrated system that can support and coordinate all phases of breast cancer care from first presentation through treatment and follow-up, including support for clinical, administrative, research and patient services. Some examples of services CREDO will offer include:

* GP referrals
* Genetic risk assessment
* Therapy planning
* Support for recruitment into trials
* Patient-tailored information
* Support for multidisciplinary treatment

CREDO software is being built using Tallis, a PROforma-based technology for developing and executing clinical guideline applications over the internet.

CREDO will aim to demonstrate the extent to which modern computer technology can:

* Significantly improve the effectiveness, consistency and quality of cancer service delivery
* Facilitate clinical research and the dissemination of evidence-based medicine at the point-of-care
* Ease practical pressures and administrative burdens on clinicians.

Contact

Vivek Patkar: v.patkar@medsch.ucl.ac.uk