Teamprojekt Multi-Agent based Patient

SchedulingProf. Dr. C. BeckerProf. Dr. A. Heinzl

Patient Scheduling Background

• Hospitals consist of autonomous decentralized units that rarely share information outside their boundaries

• Treatment of patients involves different units• During treatment, new information on patient health may

induce changes of treatment type and order• Emergencies influence treatment plans

Clinical Diag-

nostics

Clinical Diag-

nostics

Radio-logy

Radio-logy

Labo-ratoryLabo-ratory

Anes-thesiaAnes-thesia

OPOP Station/ WardStation/ Ward

Dis-charge

Dis-charge

Challenges

• Goal-conflict: – min waiting time for patients vs. max resource utilization for hospital

• Patient arrival process is hard to predict:– Elective patients with appointments– Unscheduled walk-ins (and outpatients turning into inpatients)– Emergencies in urgent need of care (interrupting unit work lists)

• Uncertainty about the disease is gradually reduced through diagnostics– Alternating treatment plans (i. e., pathways)– Changing priorities (e. g., “normal” patients turning into emergencies)– Complications (e. g., prolonged treatment duration)

Coping with sudden interrupts and treatment changes is mandatory for scheduling and resource allocation

Steinlaus (Petrophaga lorioti),Pschyrembel, Klinisches Wörterbuch, 258. Auflage

Approach

• Using small active interacting software components (called agents) to exploit decentral information and to reduce complexity

• Multi-Agent Systems – consist out of multiple interacting software components– using one or more coordination mechanisms– to achieve their individual goals.

• Overall improvement of schedule through exchange, compensation, and trade of health improvement against resource utilization

• Reflects decentralized nature of hospitals• Entities of interests modelled as „agents“ that act autonomously • Allows evaluation of different scenarios

Multi-Agent Systems

Resource Agent R1Physician

Resource Agent R2 X-Ray

Patient Agent P1 Patient agent P1 negotiateswith resource agent R1

Coordination mechanismhealth function of patient agent

Multi-Agent System

Patient-AgentPatient-Agent

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2

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Resource-AgentResource-Agent

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Patient-AgentPatient-Agent

22

2

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Patient-AgentPatient-Agent

22

2

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Patient-AgentPatient-Agent

22

2

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Resource-AgentResource-Agent

min! jj rC

Resource-AgentResource-Agent

min! jj rC

Resource-AgentResource-Agent

min! jj rC

• Coordination objects are represented byautonomous interacting agents with own goals and private plans

Your Team Project

• A Multi-Agent System for Patient Scheduling– relevant agents: patients, resources– modeling and evaluation of different scenarios– integration of different health functions and

negotiation/coordination mechanisms– Android App for patient agent

• Platform/Prerequisites– Java, Basic Process Modelling Know How, Interest

to dig into a fascinating application domain

Literature

• Paulussen, T.O., Jennings, N.R., Decker, K.S., Heinzl, A., 2003. „Distributed patient scheduling in hospitals“ 18th International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence, Acapulco, Mexico, pp. 1224-1229.

• Paulussen, T.O., Heinzl, A., Becker C. „Multi-Agent based Patient Scheduling in Hospitals“ working paper