Decision support and knowledge management in oncology using hierarchical classification.

This paper presents the KASIMIR research project for the management of decision protocols in oncology. A decision protocol is a kind of decision tree implemented in an object-based representation formalism. A reasoner based on such a formalism and on hierarchical classification is coupled with a knowledge editor. This association provides an assistance for editing and maintenance of protocols, enabling the detection of errors and the comparison between versions of the protocol. In this way, a management of protocols takes fully advantage of the underlying knowledge representation and reasoning tools. This straightforward use of the protocol may be insufficient in some situations. Then, the protocol may have to be adapted for these situations. A study of protocol adaptation is presented. In particular a reasoner based on a combination of hierarchical classification and fuzzy logic is introduced.