Computational support for bioethical decision-making in palliative care

Abstract

Palliative care advocates comprehensive care and requires a specialized multidisciplinary team. Respiratory symptoms are frequent and non-invasive ventilation is a good resource, but its use is very controversial in palliative care and it is common for physiotherapists to differ as to its indication. Therefore, this work proposes the construction of computational models based on machine learning techniques, which can be used as a resource to support decision making in palliative care. For the construction of the models, the Bio-ORACLE software was used, which offers three different techniques for the construction of decision support models in situations of bioethical conflict. The data used in the construction of the models were obtained from decisions taken by five bioethicists. The results show that Bio-ORACLE can be an important ally to support more assertive decision-making in palliative care.