Data integration in distributed medical information systems

Information and communications technology (ICT) applications for healthcare industry are proliferating and so it is quite common to find different applications among the various hospital departments that are unable to exchange data among them. On the other hand, in this field, database integration at world wide level is becoming an issue of primary importance because it is the key to handle extreme events such as sudden spreading pandemic viruses. Aim of this paper is to present a new architecture which is able to integrate information stored in heterogeneous geographically-distributed healthcare centers. The proposed approach is based on multi-agent system and grid technology to overcome the typical limitations of a n-tiered architecture and the data structure (tables and records). The medical doctor will see disparate computing and data resources in a uniform manner, so that these resources can be accessed remotely without a priori knowledge of used data structures and the possible query.