Members are now splitting those guidelines into four tiers for hospitals with different capabilities, said Dr. Robert W. Carlson, the network’s chief executive.

In breast cancer, for example, “if you can’t do a mastectomy or use tamoxifen, you probably shouldn’t even try to treat,” he said.

The next level would include tissue-sparing surgery, radiation and basic chemotherapy; a third would include reconstruction with implants and chemotherapy with monoclonal antibodies like Herceptin.

Members welcomed the chance to help, he said, because many African doctors do their oncology residencies in the United States or Europe and then stay, depriving their home countries of their skills.

“One big reason for the brain drain is that doctors get burned out and frustrated, because they can’t provide the care they know they should,” he said. “This should improve morale.”

IBM is helping by taking those guidelines and folding them into its Watson supercomputing program.

Like tax-preparation software, it asks questions based on entries like symptoms, lab results, biopsy results and so on, and then generates the best treatment regimen possible with the hospital’s resources. The program also scans medical journals to update itself without human help.