[IGSTK-Developers] Application Framework Concept

[Stephen R. Aylward]

Really great point - I will emphasize upfront that a secondary goal is 
to make workflow framework specification "easy."   However, specifying a 
new workflow template will probably also require writing code.   We 
could possibly eliminate the need for all code writing via a workflow 
template file, but it would probably overly complicate the workflow 
template file...or not...it's definitely a point for research...

Thanks,
Stephen

Kevin Cleary wrote:
> I like it in general, in particular the use of the word "penultimate", but I
> wonder if a clinical reviewer might quibble on whether generic workflows
> would always be sufficient to start with to build the application at hand
> 
> In that case, we may want to provide a more general framework but that might
> not be as much of a framework 
> 
> We could always go with this approach and say the user is free to define
> their own workflow as well if the generic workflows don't fit (might be a
> nice sentence to put in our "potential difficulties" section)
> 
> I will plan on sending the latest version of the proposal out tonight
> including what Luis has added in the introduction, what I have added in the
> background, and what I have added in Aim 4
> 
> Kevin
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: igstk-developers-bounces+cleary=georgetown.edu at public.kitware.com
> [mailto:igstk-developers-bounces+cleary=georgetown.edu at public.kitware.com]
> On Behalf Of Stephen R. Aylward
> Sent: Wednesday, May 03, 2006 2:25 PM
> To: IGSTK
> Subject: [IGSTK-Developers] Application Framework Concept
> 
> Hi,
> 
> I wanted to run a concept by ya'll.  Please take a second to let me know 
> what you think of the following design for the application framework 
> solution:  (please comment on the feasibility of the solution, no need 
> to pick apart the text...yet... :) )
> 
> [SNIP]
> 
> Generating an IGSTK application at a minimum requires (1) carefully 
> considering the workflow of the medical procedure and (2) implementing 
> that workflow as a comprehensive set of state machine transitions that 
> integrate chosen IGSTK modules.
> 
> Our analysis of several interventional radiology tasks [REF] has 
> revealed that there are a few general workflow frameworks that are 
> common to many interventional radiology procedures, and substituting 
> appropriate modules into a workflow framework is sufficient for 
> specializing a workflow for a particular procedure.
> 
> We propose to provide an application-builder program that allows a user 
> to choose from a list of pre-defined workflow frameworks and to specify 
> modules for the components of the chosen framework.  The 
> application-builder program will then automatically generate the source 
> code and CMake files needed to build that IGSTK application.
> 
> The tasks of this project are
> 
> 1)	Develop a language for defining workflow frameworks as application 
> templates.
> 2)	Develop a language for describing available IGSTK modules that can
> be 
> plugged into the components of a workflow template.
> 3)	Develop and validate a program that can load a framework and
> multiple 
> module definitions, accept user input to assign modules to the 
> components of the framework, and generate code that implements a 
> complete application.
> 
> The concept of an application-builder program is the penultimate 
> embodiment of patient-safety-centric programming that has driven the 
> development of IGSTK.
> 
> [SNIP]
> 
> Stephen
> 

-- 
=============================================================
Stephen R. Aylward, Ph.D.
Chief Medical Scientist
Kitware, Inc.
http://www.kitware.com