| Workflow was originally the domain of business and management science. The introduction of business machines saw its adoption by computer science as well. Resulting workflow systems had great success in areas such as manufacturing and banking. Recent changes in the landscape of computing, such as the boom of the Internet and the move toward standards for interoperability, have renewed interest in workflow as a domain of study.;The thesis begins by developing the requirements of a modern workflow system for healthcare. Inspired by this framework, an integrated workflow system is developed in three parts. First, a declarative workflow representation is developed to capture workflow processes in a flexible and easy to analyze manner. Second, a workflow engine is developed using declarative programming techniques. This engine is easy to extend and capable of variable functionality. Finally, the workflow engine is incorporated into the Web-based Informatics Development Environment Toolkit, a framework for building web-based informatics environments, to provide a rich workflow environment suitable for the domain of health. The complete system is referred to as the WIDE-WoRK System.;Value in this thesis is derived from several sources. The framework for evaluating workflow systems for health is valuable of its own accord, as is the system developed to satisfy these requirements. Underlying the system is a two-tiered extensible domain specific language for describing workflow and workflow engine behaviors; this language makes possible a completely declarative treatment of workflow. Finally, the system itself provides a valuable tool for workflow experimentation in many domains and, in addition, provides a strong base on which to build actual systems.;Directions for future work uncovered in this research include future workflow research as well as areas for applying and expanding the workflow system produced. In particular, further research on workflow representation, analysis and prediction are motivated. Techniques to provide embedded simulation and workflow authoring capabilities in the WIDE-WoRK System, as well as efforts to achieve interoperability through a web services approach, are indicated as areas for future implementation.;Modern workflow needs to be many things: interoperable, extensible, easily altered and contextually deep. These requirements grow when we consider the application of workflow systems to the healthcare domain. This thesis describes a representation of workflow and an associated engine on which modern workflow systems for healthcare can be built.;Improved workflow in healthcare can help in the achievement of more efficiency and possibly even result in better patient outcomes. This thesis describes an extensible workflow system that supports experimentation on workflow in the healthcare domain, and on which systems to implement better healthcare solutions can be based. |
