Agent oriented specification for patient-scheduling systems in hospitals

Patient-scheduling in hospitals is a complex task which requires new computational methods, e.g. market mechanisms and enhanced support by software agents. These demands are addressed by the MedPAge-Project (Medical Path Agents) which covers the development of a multiagent-system for which an agent oriented specification will be presented. Firstly, based on field studies in five German hospitals, the hospital domain is analysed (c.f. [9]). In this domain analysis, a generic hospital structure is derived and the relevant co-ordination objects for patient-scheduling are identified. Secondly, hospital specific scheduling problems are discussed. On the foundation of this domain analysis, the architecture of the MedPAge multi-agent-system is developed, taking actual agent-oriented methodologies into account. The agents, consisting of an individual schedule and utility function, are modeled and the co-ordination mechanism, determining the agent interactions, is described. Finally several implementation issues are discussed.