Multivariate Data-Driven Decision Guidance for clinical scientists

Clinical decision-support is gaining widespread attention as medical institutions and governing bodies turn towards utilising better information management for effective and efficient healthcare delivery and quality assured outcomes. A mass of data across all stages, from disease diagnosis to palliative care, is further indication of the opportunities and challenges created for effective data management, analysis, prediction and optimization techniques as parts of knowledge management in clinical environments. A Data-driven Decision Guidance Management System (DD-DGMS) architecture can encompass solutions into a single closed-loop integrated platform to empower clinical scientists to seamlessly explore a multivariate data space in search of novel patterns and correlations to inform their research and practice. The paper describes the components of such an architecture, which includes a robust data warehouse as an infrastructure for comprehensive clinical knowledge management. The proposed DD-DGMS architecture incorporates the dynamic dimensional data model as its elemental core. Given the heterogeneous nature of clinical contexts and corresponding data, the dimensional data model presents itself as an adaptive model that facilitates knowledge discovery, distribution and application, which is essential for clinical decision support. The paper reports on a trial of the DD-DGMS system prototype conducted on diabetes screening data which further establishes the relevance of the proposed architecture to a clinical context.