Driving time-dependent paths in clinical BPMN processes

Abstract

The modeling of temporal aspects in BPMN processes is poorly addressed to date, despite the crucial role played by time during process design and execution. In the clinical domain, temporal conditions often constrain medical decisions that drive healthcare process execution and organizational outcomes. However, both temporal constraints and their effects on process decisions are often hidden within process models. In this paper, we deal with modeling a set of selected time constraints that "decide" how process execution paths are taken and we address their enforcement in BPMN process diagrams. A formal semantics based on timed automata clarifies the behavior of the proposed processes.