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Computational Intelligence in Healthcare 4 pp 25–48Cite as

Agent Technology and Healthcare: Possibilities, Challenges and Examples of Application

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Part of the book series: Studies in Computational Intelligence ((SCI,volume 309))

Abstract

Agent technology has emerged as a promising technology to develop complex and distributed systems. They have been extensively applied in a wide range of healthcare areas in the last 10 years. This chapter introduces the basic aspects and properties of agents and multi-agent systems and argues their adequacy to solve different kinds of problems in healthcare. It also describes several healthcare areas in which this technology has been successfully applied, introducing, in each case, some of the most relevant works. The explanation is illustrated with a more detailed description of two agent-based healthcare applications in which the authors have been involved. One of them automates the enactment of clinical guidelines by coordinating several healthcare entities of a medical organization. The other is a Web-based knowledge-driven platform that supports the execution of personalized Home Care services. The benefits that agent technology brings to those approaches are commented and several lines of future research are enounced.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Computer Science and Mathematics, Intelligent Technologies for Advanced Knowledge Acquisition (ITAKA) Research Group, Universitat Rovira i Virgili (URV), Avinguda Països Catalans, 26., 43007, Tarragona, Catalonia, (Spain)

    David Sánchez, David Isern & Antonio Moreno

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  1. David Sánchez
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  2. David Isern
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  3. Antonio Moreno
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Technology/Computing and Software Systems, University ofWashington, Tacoma, 1900 Commerce Street, Campus Box 358426, 98402, Tacoma, WA, USA

    Isabelle Bichindaritz

  2. Flinders Medical Centre, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia

    Sachin Vaidya

  3. Royal Adelaide Hospital, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia

    Ashlesha Jain

  4. School of Electrical and Information Engineering, University of South Australia, SA 5095, South Australia, Australia

    Lakhmi C. Jain

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Sánchez, D., Isern, D., Moreno, A. (2010). Agent Technology and Healthcare: Possibilities, Challenges and Examples of Application. In: Bichindaritz, I., Vaidya, S., Jain, A., Jain, L.C. (eds) Computational Intelligence in Healthcare 4. Studies in Computational Intelligence, vol 309. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-14464-6_3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-14464-6_3

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