Selecting Test Cases from the Electronic Health Record for Software Testing of Knowledge-Based Clinical Decision Support Systems

Software testing of knowledge-based clinical decision support systems is challenging, labor intensive, and expensive; yet, testing is necessary since clinical applications have heightened consequences. Thoughtful test case selection improves testing coverage while minimizing testing burden. ATHENA-CDS is a knowledge-based system that provides guideline-based recommendations for chronic medical conditions. Using the ATHENA-CDS diabetes knowledgebase, we demonstrate a generalizable approach for selecting test cases using rules/ filters to create a set of paths that mimics the system's logic. Test cases are allocated to paths using a proportion heuristic. Using data from the electronic health record, we found 1,086 cases with glycemic control above target goals. We created a total of 48 filters and 50 unique system paths, which were used to allocate 200 test cases. We show that our method generates a comprehensive set of test cases that provides adequate coverage for the testing of a knowledge-based CDS.