Advanced Computation Laboratory

Previous and current research
The ACL has particular theoretical interests in logic-based methods for reasoning and decision making, planning and risk assessment. These activities are fundamental to patient care and computer-based techniques have many clinical applications. The ACL also has a long-standing interest in software engineering and formal methods for the design and verification of safety-critical software (e.g. for assisting in the management of cancer therapy).

One of the most significant results of the ACL in recent years has been the PROforma language and associated technologies for specifying clinical guidelines and care pathways and enacting them on a computer. PROforma has been the platform for a number of clinical applications developed by the lab. These have included RAGs (support for genetic risk assessment) and ERA (an electronic referrals system to assist General Practitioners in identifying patients who require urgent referral for possible cancer). PROforma is also the central component in a range of software technologies and systems currently being developed or evaluated by the lab (see next section).

Future projects

• Trial of the use of Tallis, a new enhanced suite of PROforma-based software tools, to support authoring clinical guidelines that incorporate decision support, and publishing them for use over the Internet;
• CREDO, a clinical trial of a Tallis system to support and co-ordinate all phases of breast cancer care;
• Extending the PROforma model to a 'multi-agent' setting in order to support the management of complex medical services requiring co-ordination of tasks and individuals;
• Development and deployment of new clinical services which make use of automated speech and natural language processing (HOMEY);
• Trial of a system to support shared care of childhood acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (LISA);
• Incubator project to develop of patented technology (REACT) for assisting in the creation and enactment of complex care plans.