Provision of agent-based health care services

In the last years there has been a growing interest worldwide in the application of agent technology for providing dynamic, flexible, and compound services. In this paper we report the design and implementation of a multi-agent system that provides health care-related services to the citizens and visitors of a city. The agents of the system allow the user to access his/her medical record, to find out information about the medical centres of the city, and to make a booking to be visited by a particular kind of doctor. Doctors may access and update the medical record of the patient during a visit, and they may also request the performance of clinical tests on the patient. The results of the tests are automatically stored in the patient's medical record, so that they can be accessed by the doctor in the next visit. Two key issues in the design and implementation of the system are discussed: the definition of a basic medical ontology and the implementation of security measures that preserve the confidentiality of sensitive medical information.