A mobile agent framework for telecardiology

It is generally recognised that telecommunications and the internet in particular are changing the way healthcare is delivered in cardiology. Current. implementations of telecardiology are often characterised by a centralised approach. Within this set-up a central system is connected to various remote sites. The central system has to keep track of the activities and of the state of these sites through constant communication with them. This scheme requires large volumes of data, particularly in the case of electrocardiograms (ECGs), to be generated in the remote sites and then to be transmitted to a central control system. This often leads to bottlenecks in communication that may adversely affect the quality of care. In this paper we propose a decentralised approach based on a combination of mobile agents (MA) and an Object Request Broker (ORB) mechanism. Its main aim is to support interoperability and to optimise the monitoring processes by reducing unnecessary communication. MAs possess a degree of autonomy that enables them to filter data on the remote site, and thus ease the load on the central monitoring system. they have the added advantage that they can be customised to meet individual needs. The ORB mechanism is incorporated in order to increase the reliability of MAs and to facilitate the integration of various ECG analysis software systems available on the market. It is expected that the proposed system will provide a framework for improved monitoring of patients and will lead therefore to better healthcare in cardiology.