[IGSTK-Developers] Application Framework Concept

[Stephen R. Aylward]

Also - to give proper credit where it is due - Julien was a huge help in 
evolving this concept!

Thanks Julien!

Stephen

Stephen R. Aylward wrote:
> 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