A multi-agent architecture for teaching dermatology.

Abstract

This work proposes the integration of computer-aided instruction systems in the curricula of medical education, and describes an intelligent tutoring system used for teaching Dermatology. The Dermatology Tutor uses a self-organized society of autonomous software agents which have different capabilities or roles. The society contains tutor, medical and information agents which participate in the tutoring process and collaborate through deliberation in order to achieve a tutoring task. The agents are built according to a BDI architecture, which implements the mental attitudes of beliefs (B), desires (D) and intentions (I). Each medical agent is a specialist in a medical field, while a tutoring agent, which implements a widely accepted dermatology teaching process, coordinates the overall operation of the system. Depending on the subject that is to be taught during any session, the tutoring agent forms teams of medical agents, which in turn use search agents to retrieve information. Although the presented multi-agent architecture is dedicated to teaching dermatology (since the tutor agent is specialized in Dermatology), it can be extended to other domains also with the incorporation of other tutor agents.