A Public Health Decision Support System Model Using Reasoning Methods

Problem: Public health programs must be based on the real health needs of the population. However, the design of efficient and effective public health programs is subject to availability of information that can allow users to identify, at the right time, the health issues that require special attention. Objective: The objective of this paper is to propose a case-based reasoning model for the support of decision-making in public health. Results: The model integrates a decision-making process and case-based reasoning, reusing past experiences for promptly identifying new population health priorities. A prototype implementation of the model was performed, deploying the case-based reasoning framework jColibri. Conclusions: The proposed model contributes to solve problems found today when designing public health programs in Colombia. Current programs are developed under uncertain environments, as the underlying analyses are carried out on the basis of outdated and unreliable data.