Flexibility and Security of Careflow Systems Modeled by Petri Nets

The purpose of this chapter is to present an interplay of two important structural and behavioral features of robust intelligence in careflow systems, called flexibility and multi-level security. The chapter deals with design and analysis of careflow systems, i.e. workflow systems with applications in broadly understood healthcare industry. The authors focus on providing a robust intelligence to such systems in a form of structural and behavioral flexibility. They analyze several forms of design and run-time flexibility. However, the authors focus on case handling systems, exception handling, and on careflow systems with sub-processes called worklets. They also present how to model multi-level security within careflow systems that already have desired forms of flexibility. This implies that flexibility and security are conceptually independent and can therefore be modeled with Petri nets separately and incrementally in sequential order, first flexibility and then security. The authors apply Petri nets and colored Petri nets as conceptual modeling tool. They use example of Cutaneous Melanoma (CM) to illustrate some of our considerations.