Automated clinical pathway standardization using SNOMED CT- based semantic relatedness.

The increasing number of patients and heavy workload drive health care institutions to search for efficient and cost-effective methods to deliver optimal care. Clinical pathways are promising care plans that proved to be efficient in reducing costs and optimizing resource usage. However, most clinical pathways are circulated in paper-based formats. Clinical pathway computerization is an emerging research field that aims to integrate clinical pathways with health information systems. A key process in clinical pathway computerization is the standardization of clinical pathway terminology to comply with digital terminology systems. Since clinical pathways include sensitive medical terms, clinical pathway standardization is performed manually and is difficult to automate using machines. The objective of this research is to introduce automation to clinical pathway standardization. The proposed approach utilizes a semantic score-based algorithm that automates the search for SNOMED CT terms. The algorithm was implemented in a software system with a graphical user interface component that physicians can use to standardize clinical pathways by searching for and comparing relevant SNOMED CT retrieved automatically by the algorithm. The system has been tested and validated on SNOMED CT ontology. The experimental results show that the system reached a maximum search space reduction of 98.9% within any single iteration of the algorithm and an overall average of 71.3%. The system enables physicians to locate the proper terms precisely, quickly, and more efficiently. This is demonstrated using case studies, and the results show that human-guided automation is a promising methodology in the field of clinical pathway standardization and computerization.