Agent-Based Approach to Health Care Management

The provision ofmedical care typically involves a number ofindividuals. located in a number ofdifferent institutions. whose decisions and actions need to be coordinated if the care is to be effective and efficient. Tofacilitate this decision making and to ensure the coordination process runs smoothly, the use ofsoftware support is becoming increasingly widespread. To this end. this paper describes an agent-based system that was developed to help manage the care process in real-world settings. The agents themselves are implemented using a layered architecture called AADCare, which combines a number ofAl and agent techniques: a symbolic decision procedure for decision making with incomplete and conflicting information. a concept of accountability for task allocation, the notions ofcommitments and conventions for managing coherent cooperation, and a set ofcommunication primitives for interagent interaction. The utility ofthis approach is demonstrated through the development ofan application prototypefor the clinical process ofcancer treatment.