Copyright e IFAC Modeling and Conlrd in Biomedical Sylllans. Galveatoo. Texas. USA. 1994 THE USE OF COMPUTER IN CHILD'S DEVELOPMENT TRACE AND CONTROL Peter Kokol Faculty of Technical Sciences Smetanova 17,62000 Maribor, Slovenia Jernej Zavrsnik, Kurt Kander, Martin Bigec House of Health, Smetanova 17, Maribor, Slovenia l. INTRODUCTION As the children are our greatest gift it is our primary re- sponsibility to accurately care for them. Two activities are essential for the successful care: namely adequate trace (measurement, recording, trend and pattern calculations) and control (comparison and possible mediation) of their development. In the present paper we would like to introduce a structured model called COCIOIN used to accompany and determine the child's development. 1.1. Model and Modeling Process Features. Evidently in the manner to make the model use process successfuL the model should: • be simple; • enable effective manipulation (store. access, filter, join, etc.) of vast quantities of data; • enable to test "what-if' situations; . • be accessible to every competent member of the medi- cal staff; • be easy to use and 1e.1rn; • be natural and intuitive. In the manner to construct models possessing above fea- tures the modelling process should be : • users oriented in the way that medical staff, under the guidance of neCeS5.1ry experts, design, test and evaluate models by themselves (4) . • based on the rigorous and coherent conceptual frame- work; • independent of model representation, model solution and model domain; • applicable to all phases of model's life cycle; • appropriate to computerised support. 1.2. Comlmter Based Modeling Environments. According to Geoffrion (3) the answer to above-mentioned requirements is a new generation computer-based modelling environment consisting out of a modelling tool and the appropriate software tool that should support the modelling process. A formal analysis of current state of the art tools (2) has shown that the Structured Modelling (3) is 425 the best candidate for the modelling and spreadsheet software as the computer support tool. 2. SSM The Structured Spreadsheet Modelling (SSM) is a com- bination of structured modelling (3), spreadsheet software and SPRENOT (spreadsheet documentation notation). It is the process in which a structured model is built first using the SML. This model is then transformed into an executable form using spreadsheet software and documented using SPRENOT. 2.1. Structured Modeling. Structured spreadsheet (SM) has three levels: elemental, generic and modular structure. Elemental structure aims to capture all the definitional detail of a specific model instance and is often presented as a directed graph. Generic structure aims to capture the natural familial groupings of elements. Mathematically, this is done by partitioning all elements of a given type into genera. Modular structure aims to organise generic structure hierarchically if seems appropriate and useful. In this manner the complexity of a model is managed and organised in terms of higher order abstractions. 2.2. Spreadsheet software. Spreadsheet software is an ideal replacement for a pencil (the cursor). a sheet of paper (spreadsheet) and a calculator (build in functions). Its greatest advantages are that it is an integrated tool enabling the user to make his applications more effectively, reliably and in shorter time as with conventional programming. 3. CASE STUDY: COCIDIN Our idea is based on our previous research where we developed some decision models concerning child's development. The results we got really did encourage us that we continued with our work using a much more ell.1ensive framework. In this manner we developed COCIOIN a numeric index founded on the observations of ten important parameters, namely: • Weight, Height and Head circumference. Advised by WHO, weight, height and head circumference are the