Towards Cooperative Patient Management Through Organizational and Medical Ontologies

S. Falasconi; L. Dazzi; G. Lanzola; S. Quaglini; R. Saracco; M. Stefanelli

doi:10.1055/s-0038-1634541

Methods of Information in Medicine, Table of Contents

Methods Inf Med 1998; 37(04/05): 564-575
DOI: 10.1055/s-0038-1634541

Original Article

Schattauer GmbH

Towards Cooperative Patient Management Through Organizational and Medical Ontologies

Authors

S. Falasconi

¹Medical Informatics Laboratory, Dept of Informatics and Systems Science, University of Pavia, Pavia, Italy
L. Dazzi

¹Medical Informatics Laboratory, Dept of Informatics and Systems Science, University of Pavia, Pavia, Italy
G. Lanzola

¹Medical Informatics Laboratory, Dept of Informatics and Systems Science, University of Pavia, Pavia, Italy
S. Quaglini

¹Medical Informatics Laboratory, Dept of Informatics and Systems Science, University of Pavia, Pavia, Italy
R. Saracco

¹Medical Informatics Laboratory, Dept of Informatics and Systems Science, University of Pavia, Pavia, Italy
M. Stefanelli

¹Medical Informatics Laboratory, Dept of Informatics and Systems Science, University of Pavia, Pavia, Italy

Abstract

Within knowledge and data engineering a new research paradigm is emerging based on the Multi-Agent System (MAS) architectural framework, allowing human and software agents to interoperate and thus cooperate within common application areas. In such a framework, knowledgeable agents of heterogeneous nature, that possess diverse but at least partially compatible or inter-translatable conceptual views, or ontologies, modeling both their own expertise and the external environment, make somehow available their information resources or problem-solving abilities for cooperative processes addressing the construction of a new agent or the achievement of some common goal through a correlated execution of tasks.

In this paper, we restrict our analysis to the case of an organization of cognitive agents, illustrated with examples from a prototypical healthcare MAS, that is, a so-called Distributed Healthcare Information System (D-HIS). The prototype makes use of an ontological library written in the standard language Ontolingua. An ongoing application of the methodology to the main problem of Clinical Practice Guidelines (GLs) computer-based dissemination and enforcement is described.

Keywords

Agent - Ontology - Organization - Distributed Healthcare - Clinical Practice Guideline

Full Text

References

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