Reference: Tu, S. W.; Eriksson, H.; Gennari, J.; Shahar, Y.; & Musen, M. A. Ontology-Based Configuration of Problem-Solving Methods and Generation of Knowledge-Acquisition Tools: Application of PROTÉGÉ-II to Protocol-Based Decision Support. Knowledge Systems Laboratory, Medical Computer Science, December, 1994.
Abstract: PROTÉGÉ-II is a suite of tools and a methodology for building knowledge-based systems and domain-specific knowledge-acquisition tools. In this paper, we show how PROTÉGÉ-II can be applied to the task of providing protocol-based decision support in the domain of treating HIV-infected patients. For this task, we use a problem-solving method called episodic skeletal-plan refinement. This method is decomposable; we construct it from a set of reusable components. In addition, we build an application ontology that consists of the terms and relations in the domain, plus terms that supply method-specific knowledge requirements. From this ontology, we automatically generate a domain-specific KA tool. The general goal of the PROTÉGÉ-II approach is to produce systems and components that are easily maintained and reusable. This is the rationale for constructing a problem-solving method from a set of smaller-grained methods and mechanisms. This is also why our KA-tools are domain-specific and generated automatically from ontologies. Although our evaluation is still preliminary, for the application task of providing protocol-based decision support, we show that these goals of reusability and easy maintenance can be achieved. We discuss design decisions and the tradeoffs that have to be made in the development of the system.
Notes: updated December 1994.
Full paper available as ps.