Title: Applying a service-oriented approach for developing a distributed multi-agent system for healthcare

Authors: Dante I. Tapia, Juan Francisco De Paz, Sara Rodriguez, Cristian Pinzon, Rosa Cano, Javier Bajo, Juan M. Corchado

Addresses: Departamento de Informatica y Automatica, Universidad de Salamanca, Plaza de la Merced s/n, 37008, Salamanca, Spain. ' Departamento de Informatica y Automatica, Universidad de Salamanca, Plaza de la Merced s/n, 37008, Salamanca, Spain. ' Departamento de Informatica y Automatica, Universidad de Salamanca, Plaza de la Merced s/n, 37008, Salamanca, Spain. ' Departamento de Informatica y Automatica, Universidad de Salamanca, Plaza de la Merced s/n, 37008, Salamanca, Spain. ' Departamento de Informatica y Automatica, Universidad de Salamanca, Plaza de la Merced s/n, 37008, Salamanca, Spain. ' Departamento de Informatica y Automatica, Universidad de Salamanca, Plaza de la Merced s/n, 37008, Salamanca, Spain. ' Departamento de Informatica y Automatica, Universidad de Salamanca, Plaza de la Merced s/n, 37008, Salamanca, Spain

Abstract: This paper presents a service-oriented architecture that allows a more efficient distribution of resources and functionalities. The architecture has been used to develop a multi-agent system aimed at enhancing the assistance and healthcare for Alzheimer patients living in geriatric residences. Most of the system functionalities have been modelled as independent and distributed services, including reasoning, planning and security mechanisms. The results obtained after testing the architecture in a real healthcare scenario demonstrate that a service-oriented approach is far more robust and has better performance than a centralised one.

Keywords: multi-agent systems; distributed MAS; service-oriented architecture; SOA; case-based reasoning; CBR; case-based planning; healthcare technology; security; agent-based systems; Alzheimer patients; geriatric residences; old peoples homes; patient care.

DOI: 10.1504/IJCAT.2010.036027

International Journal of Computer Applications in Technology, 2010 Vol.39 No.4, pp.234 - 244

Published online: 12 Oct 2010 *

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