A multi-agent system model to support palliative care units

Abstract

Palliative care units are hospital services that assist advanced-state terminal patients. These patients are geographically distributed and some hospital tasks such as the organization of visits, the management of medicines, and the analysis of patients are difficult to manage. Here, a multi-layer computer system is proposed. The communication, information system, and multi-agent layers are described and a prototype of the system is used to deal with the Palliative Care Unit at the Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau in Barcelona.