Mobile agent architecture for mobile systems for telehealth and telemedicine

Telehealth and telemedicine are among the fastest growing areas. However, telehealth and telemedicine systems development is still in its infancy. The currently available tools are software-based or Web-based. Software-based tools must be installed on each computer prior to using the tool. For the use of Web-based tools, access to the Internet is required. The shortcomings of the currently available tools have made the use of mobile devices more appealing. In mobile computing, the issues such as low bandwidth, high latency wireless networks, loss or degradation of wireless connections, and network errors or failures need to be dealt with. Other issues to be addressed include system adaptability, reliability, robustness, extensibility, flexibility, and maintainability. This has motivated our research to explore mobile agent approach for development of wireless mobile systems for telehealth and telemedicine. The research is co-sponsored by IBM and HP. Mobile agent approach has emerged as the most viable approach for development of intelligent software applications for wireless mobile devices. We have also developed a demonstration prototype using Java-based agent technologies and Java-based mobile technologies. In this paper, we present the new architecture and the demonstration prototype, and discuss the approach, the lesson learned, and future plans.