Using KADS methodology in a simulation assisted knowledge based system: application to hospital management

This paper presents a knowledge-based system for aiding in the decision-mak ing process that is carried out in hospital management. There are a number of reasons that have led us to choose a tool such as this one: the amount o f information generated in a hospital, its great interrelation and the need of heuristic knowledge for its processing. The KBS has been designed following the KADS methodology. KADS has allowed us to obtain a structured representation of the knowledge, which makes easi er both the construction and the debugging of the knowledge base. As a star ting point, the decision-making task has been decomposed in four subtasks: monitoring; diagnosis; prediction of the possible solutions for the stared problem; and design of the solution. The prediction task can only be performed through a simulation program wher e the dynamics of the hospital is modeled. This allows the system to detect the consequences of the application of different possible solutions. The c o-operation between simulation and artificial intelligence has proven to be an adequate technique for dealing with the decision-making tasks that are involved with the management of complex organizations. (C) 2001 Elsevier Sc ience Ltd. All rights reserved.