A Step Forward in Cancer Informatics—It Is Mandatory to Make Guidelines Machine Readable
A Step Forward in Cancer Informatics—It Is Mandatory to Make Guidelines Machine Readable
N. Cihoric,I. Igrutinovic,2 Authors,P. Mackeprang
TLDR
This writing argues on the necessity that clinical guidelines should be published in a machine-readable format and describes the most important achievements in the field.
Abstract
Clinical guidelines are general recommendations for practicing clinicians regarding prevention, diagnosis and treatment of a given disease. One of the most comprehensive and used guidelines are developed and regularly updated by the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN). Guidelines are readily available for download in portable document format (PDF). A machine-readable representation of NCCN guidelines is currently not available. In this writing, we argue on the necessity that clinical guidelines should be published in a machine-readable format. After review of the available literature, we describe the most important achievements in the field. Publication of guidelines in a machine-readable form may also be beneficial for other scientific and technical disciplines.