[email protected] - Agent Based Support of Clinical Processes

In this paper we present a system for agent-based support of clinical processes. We describe the basic engineering concept, along with specific simulation and testing scenarios for agent-based software engineering. Another important focus is the integration of existing agent or healthcare standards like FIPA, DICOM and HL7. Objectives of our research activities in this project are: a substantial increase of the efficiency of hospital process management as well as the development of a specific goal oriented requirements engineering methodology. As most important challenges of the healthcare domain we have identified on the one hand individualized, patient oriented processes in diagnostics, therapy, nursing and administration and on the other hand extremely distributed decision processes and strong local (individual) autonomy with a high degree of situational dynamics. The example scenario on „clinical trials“ illustrates how the system shall support distributed clinical processes and how it interacts with other multiagent systems within the Agent.Hospital Framework and hospital information systems in the eHealth Lab introduced in this paper. The system development is part of the German Priority Research Program (SPP) 1083 “Intelligent Agents and their application in business scenarios”

Designing Multi-Agent Systems - The NDA Approach Applied in Health Care

In this paper we introduce inherent problems of information logistics in health care. Promising research results on agentbased systems have allowed us to conclude that this approach is especially suitable to coping with these problems. In order to adequately capture the requirements of a complex setting, we present an approach for the design of agent-based systems. The basis forms the ethnography-based requirements analysis approach Needs Driven Approach (NDA). The NDA supports the participating observation of work processes and guides the construction of domain models. As a result of a field study, a Technische Universitat Munchen meta-model is constructed which reflects the interrelationships of its elements. According to basic ideas of the Model Driven Architecture (MDA), the elements of the meta-model are mapped to constructs of software engineering

Agent-based context-aware healthcare information retrieval using DROPT approach

As the volume of information available on the Web information systems is growing continuously, browsing this content becomes a tedious task given the presentation of data that does meet user's aims and needs. In this paper, to satisfy user needs, an agent-based paradigm is an appropriate solution which gives outputs suitable to the user in the form of highly ranked documents. Conversely, patient care and a health condition commonly require collaboration between healthcare providers. The emergence of agent's technology motivates radical changes of how information is obtained. This paper addresses this problem by proposing a novel DROPT (Document Ranking OPTimization) measure for information retrieval results to validate the effectiveness of the information management tasks. We propose information retrieval system architecture, which main components are context aware agent’s technology to meet users' information needs

AGENT-BASED CONTEXT-AWARE HEALTHCARE INFORMATION RETRIEVAL USING DROPT APPROACH

As the volume of information available on the Web information systems is growing continuously, browsing this content becomes a tedious task given the presentation of data that does meet user's aims and needs. In this paper, to satisfy user needs, an agent-based paradigm is an appropriate solution which gives outputs suitable to the user in the form of highly ranked documents. Conversely, patient care and a health condition commonly require collaboration between healthcare providers. The emergence of agent's technology motivates radical changes of how information is obtained. This paper addresses this problem by proposing a novel DROPT (Document Ranking OPTimization) measure for information retrieval results to validate the effectiveness of the information management tasks. We propose information retrieval system architecture, which main components are contextaware agent’s technology to meet users' information needs

Information Systems and Healthcare XX: Toward Seamless Healthcare with Software Agents

Healthcare processes are frequently fragmented and often badly supported with IT. Inter- and intra-organizational communication and media frictions complicate the continuous provision of information according to the principle of information logistics. Based on extensive literature review, we present the vision of seamless healthcare with horizontally and vertically integrated healthcare processes enabled by seamless IT support. Its implementation requires the establishment of a communication infrastructure and the deployment of adequate standards in healthcare. There are already comprehensive approaches for dealing with integrating heterogeneous information systems. However, they lack a common communication infrastructure and do not support proactivity and flexibility which are dominant characteristics in healthcare. We propose a software agent-based approach for realizing the vision of seamless healthcare. We present a corresponding implementation for integrating heterogeneous information systems in the context of the German Health Telematics Infrastructure. Based on the concept and the implementation, we show that the modular approach is capable of supporting a wide range of different applications. We furthermore outline which facets of an agent-based solution could be implemented in an operative real-world environment. In closing we derive implications for IT decision makers in healthcare and show directions for future approaches for reducing information logistics related deficits in healthcare

On The Research Approaches Employed at Recent European Conferences on Information Systems (ECIS 2002 - ECIS 2004)

European Information Systems research is reflected in the papers presented at the European Conference for Information Systems (ECIS). It seems that we employ a number of different approaches for research in the IS community. There has been a debate on methodological appropriateness and choice of research approach over the years. This paper adds to that debate by presenting a snapshot of what research approaches have been employed at recent ECIS. This paper presents a classification scheme for discussing research approaches and applies that scheme to analyse the papers presented at the three most recent ECIS. The results show that the proportion of studies employing qualitative interviews in combination with document studies has increased. The proportion of studies employing prolonged organisational engagement is relatively stable, while experimental studies where artefacts are constructed and/or tested are decreasing

Agent-based management of clinical guidelines

Les guies de pràctica clínica (GPC) contenen un conjunt d'accions i dades que ajuden a un metge a prendre decisions sobre el diagnòstic, tractament o qualsevol altre procediment a un pacient i sobre una determinada malaltia. És conegut que l'adopció d'aquestes guies en la vida diària pot millorar l'assistència mèdica als pacients, pel fet que s'estandarditzen les pràctiques. Sistemes computeritzats que utilitzen GPC poden constituir part de sistemes d'ajut a la presa de decisions més complexos amb la finalitat de proporcionar el coneixement adequat a la persona adequada, en un format correcte i en el moment precís. L'automatització de l'execució de les GPC és el primer pas per la seva implantació en els centres mèdics.Per aconseguir aquesta implantació final, hi ha diferents passos que cal solucionar com per exemple, l'adquisició i representació de les GPC, la seva verificació formal, i finalment la seva execució. Aquesta Tesi està dirigida en l'execució de GPC i proposa la implementació d'un sistema multi-agent. En aquest sistema els diferents actors dels centres mèdics coordinen les seves activitats seguint un pla global determinat per una GPC. Un dels principals problemes de qualsevol sistema que treballa en l'àmbit mèdic és el tractament del coneixement. En aquest cas s'han hagut de tractar termes mèdics i organitzatius, que s'ha resolt amb la implementació de diferents ontologies. La separació de la representació del coneixement del seu ús és intencionada i permet que el sistema d'execució de GPC sigui fàcilment adaptable a les circumstàncies concretes dels centres, on varien el personal i els recursos disponibles.En paral·lel a l'execució de GPC, el sistema proposat manega preferències del pacient per tal d'implementar serveis adaptats al pacient. En aquesta àrea concretament, a) s'han definit un conjunt de criteris, b) aquesta informació forma part del perfil de l'usuari i serveix per ordenar les propostes que el sistema li proposa, i c) un algoritme no supervisat d'aprenentatge permet adaptar les preferències del pacient segons triï.Finalment, algunes idees d'aquesta Tesi actualment s'estan aplicant en dos projectes de recerca. Per una banda, l'execució distribuïda de GPC, i per altra banda, la representació del coneixement mèdic i organitzatiu utilitzant ontologies.Clinical guidelines (CGs) contain a set of directions or principles to assist the health care practitioner with patient care decisions about appropriate diagnostic, therapeutic, or other clinical procedures for specific clinical circumstances. It is widely accepted that the adoption of guideline-execution engines in daily practice would improve the patient care, by standardising the care procedures. Guideline-based systems can constitute part of a knowledge-based decision support system in order to deliver the right knowledge to the right people in the right form at the right time. The automation of the guideline execution process is a basic step towards its widespread use in medical centres.To achieve this general goal, different topics should be tackled, such as the acquisition of clinical guidelines, its formal verification, and finally its execution. This dissertation focuses on the execution of CGs and proposes the implementation of an agent-based platform in which the actors involved in health care coordinate their activities to perform the complex task of guideline enactment. The management of medical and organizational knowledge, and the formal representation of the CGs, are two knowledge-related topics addressed in this dissertation and tackled through the design of several application ontologies. The separation of the knowledge from its use is fully intentioned, and allows the CG execution engine to be easily customisable to different medical centres with varying personnel and resources.In parallel with the execution of CGs, the system handles citizen's preferences and uses them to implement patient-centred services. With respect this issue, the following tasks have been developed: a) definition of the user's criteria, b) use of the patient's profile to rank the alternatives presented to him, c) implementation of an unsupervised learning method to adapt dynamically and automatically the user's profile.Finally, several ideas of this dissertation are being directly applied in two ongoing funded research projects, including the agent-based execution of CGs and the ontological management of medical and organizational knowledge