Pronab Ganguly

Software interoperability of telemedicine systems: a CSCW perspective

Computer supported cooperative work (CSCW) provides a fusion of the understanding of organisational processes with communication technologies. Telemedicine involves an integration of networking technologies with health-care processes. Since different modalities of patient care require applications running on heterogeneous computing environments, interoperability is a major issue in telemedicine. Software interoperability provides two distinctly classified benefits-benefits for the users of the system and benefits to the development and maintenance of the system. Software interoperability between different applications can be modeled at different levels of abstractions can be modeled at different levels of abstractions such as physical interoperability and semantic interoperability. Various mechanisms exist to resolve the problem at different levels. This paper presents the design issues of an interoperable. CSCW system in a distributed health-care environment through an illustrative study in the area of telecardiology.

Telemedicine over enterprise-wide networks: a case study

Developments in the understanding of the molecular basis of diseases have resulted in a major growth of health care informatics. Private health enterprise networks and computerized patient records are two major elements in this emerging enterprise-wide healthcare informatics. In a specialized domain of this healthcare informatics, also known as telemedicine, efforts are being made to develop networked computing applications according to some evolving international standards, such as HL7. This has led to the potential for a number of distributed telemedicine applications. This paper illustrates such an application in an object oriented modeling language called unified modeling language.

A Methodology for the Development of Software Agent Based Interoperable Telemedicine Systems: A Tele-Electrocardiography Perspective

Telemedicine involves the integration of information, human-machine, and healthcare technologies. Because different modalities of patient care require applications running on heterogeneous computing environment, software interoperability is a major issue in telemedicine. Software agent technology provides a range of promising techniques to solve this problem. This article discusses the development of a methodology for the design of interoperable telemedicine systems (illustrated with a tele-electrocardiography application). Software interoperability between different applications can be modeled at different levels of abstraction such as physical interoperability, data-type interoperability, specification-level interoperability, and semantic interoperability. Software agents address the issue of software interoperability at semantic level. A popular object-oriented software development methodology - unified modeling language (UML) - has been used for this development. This research has demonstrated the feasibility of the development of agent-based interoperable telemedicine systems. More research is needed before widespread deployment of such systems can take place.

Healthcare applications based on networked agents

Healthcare has been recognized as one of the most important areas for networked enterprise applications and services. Presently, information technologists and systems engineers all over the world are working towards achieving better efficiency and quality of service in various sectors of healthcare, such as telemedicine, hospital management, patient-care, and treatment This paper addresses the issue of more effective and efficient handling of doctor-patient relationship. The idea is to use Software Agent technology to extend the patient-doctor relationship beyond the physical and logistical limitation of face-to-face consultations in the management of diabetes. Software agents can provide an extension of the doctor by interacting with the patent via a computer and the Internet. The agent is visualized as an anthropomorphic figure to further enhance the patient interaction.

An ontology-based framework for managing semantic interoperability issues in e-health

Ontology-based approaches may be tried in e-health scenario to solve some of the interoperability problems that are non-trivial, for e.g. Anemometerpsila and dasiaSphygmomanometerpsila are two different terms but represent the blood pressure monitor in Europe and India, respectively. The semantic interoperability issue arises when similar things are meant differently to the remotely sitting agents. Given such scenario, this paper aims to describe a framework that combines A) dialogue game with B) a decision support system (DSS) leading to resolution of such types of ontological mismatches. Under dasiaDialogue gamepsila argumentation mechanisms are used for resolving certain types of ontological mismatches. While, the DSS decides on the initiation, termination, structuring and sequencing the dialogues, as these may not be properly adjudged by the dasiaDialogue gamepsila. The framework is therefore context driven in nature, where concepts can be substituted with the similar kind of concepts (may not be accurate by searching and choosing equivalent concepts. Such framework therefore offers potential for dynamic modification of participating Ontologies and provides explanation in context of diet management in diabetes with time in a more matured way.

Software agent based approach towards tele-electrocardiography

TeIemedicine involves the integration of information, telecommunications, human-machine and healthcare technologies. One of the aspects of telecardiology, known as tele-electrocardiography, deploys electrocardiography (ECG) machines to transmit ECGs over networks. Tele-electrocardiography diagnosis and ECG interpretation is simple, reliable and cost-effective. As different parts of this tele-electrocardiography system work on different computing environments, software interoperability is a major issue. Software agent technology supports a heterogeneous computing environment. As this technology reacts dynamically to adverse conditions, it is suitable for the development of fault-tolerant distributed systems. Additionally, agent technology represents the intentions, desires and resources of the participants - so it can be effectively used in online healthcare applications. The features of software agent technology are potentially suitable for the development of interoperable telemedicine systems. This paper presents a software agent-based interoperable scheme for tele-electrocardiography applications.

Inter-agent dialogue for semantic mapping between domain ontologies in healthcare informatics

Domain ontologies have become very important elements in healthcare informatics. Ontological interoperability is crucial to the success of healthcare information system through semantic web[1]. As the ontologies differ, resolution of semantic differences between them is an active research area. Software agents can be deployed in various ways to automate this resolution of semantic differences. Approaches for semantic mapping of ontologies through conversation between software agents include: • Dialogue game loosely modelled on human communication [2] • Dialogue game based framework with an explicit modelling of mental states in terms of the beliefs and of the participating software agents and their goals[3]. • Use of lexicons such as worldnet to retrieve alternative forms of a concept in the ontology and use the alternate forms for mismatch resolution through ontology negotiation protocol (ONP)[4] and associated extensions [5].

Workflow-based approach towards distributed health care applications [ECG application]

The provision of telemedicine services involves integration of information, human-machine and health care technologies. As different modalities of patient care require applications running on heterogeneous computing environment, distributed health care applications are a major issue in telemedicine. A distributed application integrates resources located at distant places through networking, These resources include diagnostic instruments, medical expertise, hospital care and other related administrative services in health care applications. A workflow based methodology for development and implementation of distributed health care applications is presented. The workflow methodology involves process modeling, workflow design and implementation, and system evaluation. Using the specific example of a distributed telecardiology application, issues related to workflow management are reviewed and a design methodology to develop a distributed telecardiology system is proposed. The ECG process includes; data acquisition; encoding, transmission and storage; pattern recognition and feature extraction; and diagnostic classification. The key identified elements of the workflow implementation are; the point of need user; the assessor in the online diagnostic center; ECG knowledge repositories; online specialist and the further care center. As illustrated through the telecardiology case study, the proposed methodology can be effectively used as a guideline to develop distributed health care applications in other telecare areas.