Goal-Driven Structured Argumentation for Patient Management in a Multimorbidity Setting

The formalization of multimorbidity decisions serves two purposes: to support the stakeholders in choosing which treatment to apply and to identify the reasons behind decisions. We investigate the use of computational argumentation to both analyse and generate decisions in multimorbidity about consistent recommendations, according to the different goals of stakeholders. Decision-making in this setting carries a complexity related with the multiple variables involved. These variables reflect the concomitant health conditions that should be considered when defining a proper therapy. However, current Clinical Decision Support Systems (CDSSs) are not equipped to deal with such a situation. They do not go beyond the straightforward application of the rules that build their knowledge base and simple interpretation of Computer Interpretable Guidelines (CIGs). We provide a computational argumentation system equipped with goal seeking mechanisms to combine independently generated recommendations, then identify and discuss its advantages over multiple-criteria decision analysis in this particular setting.