Skip to main content

Cooperating agents implementing distributed patient management

  • Task-Specific Analysis
  • Conference paper
  • First Online:
Agents Breaking Away (MAAMAW 1996)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNAI,volume 1038))

Abstract

Managing patients is a knowledge intensive activity requiring a high interoperability among the health care professionals involved. To support cooperative work in medical care, computer technology should therefore either augment the capabilities of individual specialists and enhance their ability of interacting with each other and with computational resources. However, despite the efforts spent in the Artificial Intelligence research field in the past years for developing innovative tools, there are still very few cases of systems which are proficiently used on a routinary basis for providing health care related services. One way to overcome those limitations is to redesign the set of software tools in order that they be more appropriated for an interoperable environment, and perhaps the most promising approach nowadays is based on the so called distributed computing paradigm applied to Artificial Intelligence. In this paper we describe a methodology for implementing a network of cooperating software agents aimed at improving the health care delivery process. Moreover, we will also illustrate some examples from a set of tools we are developing for evaluating that methodology.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

References

  1. Bellazzi, R., Quaglini, S., Berzuini, C. and Stefanelli M. (1991). GAMEES: a probabilistic environment for expert systems. Computer Methods and Programs in Biomedicine, 35:177–191.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  2. Burmeister, W. and Sundermeyer, K. (1992). Cooperative problem-solving guided by intention and perception. In Proceedings of the Third European Workshop on Modelling Autonomous Agents in a Multi-Agent World, pp. 77–92, (Werner and Demazeau Eds.), Kaiserlautern, Germany.

    Google Scholar 

  3. Engelmann, U., Jean, F.C., and Degoulet, P. (1994). The HELIOS Software Engineering Environment. Computer Methods and Programs in Biomedicine, 45 S1–S152.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  4. Falasconi, S., Stefanelli, M. (1994). A library of medical ontologies. In Mars, N. J. I., editor, Proceedings of the ECAI94 Workshop Comparison of Implemented Ontologies, pages 81–91, Amsterdam.

    Google Scholar 

  5. Finin, T., Weber, J., Wiederhold, G., Genesereth, M. R., Fritzson, R., McKay, D., McGuire, J., Pelavin, P., Shapiro, S. and Beck, C. (1993). Specification of the KQML Agent Communication Language. Technical Report EIT 92-04, Enterprise Integration Technologies, Palo Alto, CA.

    Google Scholar 

  6. Genesereth, M. R., Ketchpel, S. P. (1994). Software agents. Communications of the ACM, 7(37):48–53.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Gruber, T. R. (1993). A translation approach to portable ontology specifications. Knowledge Acquisition, 5:199–220.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Jennings, N.R. (1995). Controlling cooperative problem solving in industrial multi-agent systems using joint intentions. Artificial Intelligence, 75:195–240.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Lanzola, G. and Stefanelli, M. (1992). A Specialized Framework for Medical Diagnostic Knowledge-Based Systems. Computers and Biomedical Research, 25:351–365.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  10. Lanzola, G. and Stefanelli, M. (1993). Inferential knowledge acquisition. Artificial Intelligence in Medicine, 5:253–268.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  11. Lanzola, G. and Stefanelli, M. (1993). Computational Model 3.0. Technical Report GAMES-II Deliverable 25, Laboratory of Medical Informatics, University of Pavia, Italy.

    Google Scholar 

  12. Lindberg, D., Humphreys, B. and McCray, A. (1993). The Unified Medical Language System. In van Bemmel, J., editor, 1993 Yearbook of Medical Informatics, pages 41–53, International Medical Informatics Association, Amsterdam.

    Google Scholar 

  13. Minski, M. (1985). The society of mind, Simon and Schuster, New York.

    Google Scholar 

  14. Neches, R., Fikes, R. E., Finin, T., Gruber, T. R., Patil, R., Senator, T. and Swartout, W. (1991). Enabling technology for knowledge sharing. AI Magazine, 12:36–56.

    Google Scholar 

  15. Nii, H. P. (1986). Blackboard Systems: The blackboard model of problem solving and the evolution of blackboard architectures (part i). AI Magazine, 38–53.

    Google Scholar 

  16. Puerta, A. R., Tu, S. W. and Musen, M. A. (1992) Modeling Tasks with Mechanisms, International Journal of Intelligent Systems.

    Google Scholar 

  17. Quaglini, S., Bellazzi, R., Locatelli, F., Stefanelli, M. and Salvaneschi C. (1994). An influence diagram for assessing GVHD prophylaxis after bone marrow transplantation in children. Medical Decision Making, 14:223–235.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  18. Ramoni, M., Stefanelli, M., Magnani, L., and Barosi, G. (1992). An Epistemological Framework for Medical Knowledge-Based Systems. IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics, 6(22):1361–1375.

    Google Scholar 

  19. Rector, A. L., Solomon, W. D., Nowlan, W. A. and Rush, T. W. (1994). A terminology server for medical language and medical information systems. Technical Report, Department of Computer Science, University of Manchester.

    Google Scholar 

  20. Tang, P. C., Annevelink, J., Suermondt, H.J and Young, C.Y. (1994). Semantic Integration of Information in a Physician Workstation. International Journal of Biomedical Computing, 35:47–60.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  21. van Bemmel, J.H. (1993). Criteria for the acceptance of decision-support systems by clinicians; lessons from ECG interpretation system. Proceedings of the Artificial Intelligence in Medicine Conference AIME-93 (IOS Press), 7–10.

    Google Scholar 

  22. van Heijst, G., Lanzola, G., Schreiber, G. and Stefanelli, M. (1994). Foundations for a Methodology for Medical KBS Development. Knowledge Acquisition, 6:395–434.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  23. van Heijst, G., Falasconi, S., Abu-Hanna, A., Schreiber, G. and Stefanelli, M. (1995). A case study in ontology library construction. Artificial Intelligence in Medicine, 7:227–255.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  24. Werner, E., (1992). The design of multi-agent systems. In Proceedings of the Third European Workshop on Modelling Autonomous Agents in a Multi-Agent World, pp. 3–28, (Werner and Demazeau Eds.), Kaiserlautern, Germany.

    Google Scholar 

  25. Wielinga, B. J., Schreiber, A., Th. and Breuker, J., A. (1992). KADS: a modelling approach to knowledge engineering. Knowledge Acquisition, 4:5–53.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Editor information

Walter Van de Velde John W. Perram

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 1996 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

About this paper

Cite this paper

Lanzola, G., Falasconi, S., Stefanelli, M. (1996). Cooperating agents implementing distributed patient management. In: Van de Velde, W., Perram, J.W. (eds) Agents Breaking Away. MAAMAW 1996. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 1038. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/BFb0031858

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BFb0031858

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-60852-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-49621-2

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

Publish with us

Policies and ethics