Modelling Software Agents: Web-Based Decision Support System for Malaria Diagnosis and Therapy

Abstract

Background and Purpose: The aims of our research as presented in this paper consist of formalizing the design of software agents and demonstrating its practicability in a web-based medical decision support system specifically for malaria diagnosis and therapy to assist healthcare professionals at medical consultation in order to optimize the quality of care of the patients with the malaria disease. Methods: The Software Agent System proposed is a functional model based on a contractual specification as the awareness of an agent in pursuing its goals and executing tasks. The agents are designed according to the requirement for an effective diagnosis and delivering the therapy strategies for malaria as per the supplied sign-symptoms and laboratory test results. Results: The contribution of our work is mainly the contractual specification, a λ contract. As we demonstrate in the scenarios presented as results, the contract ensures the behaviour of the agents in achieving their goals and executing tasks. Conclusions: The Software Agent System is adopted to cope with a complex and dynamic domain such as medicine and specifically the web-based medical decision support system for malaria diagnosis and therapy of the Optimization of Malaria Treatment (OMaT) system. Our proposed functional model facilitated the implementation of the SA. Specifically, we point out the fact that a λ contract can ensure the consistency and the credibility of the reasoning of the software agent. Keywords: Software Agents, Functional Model, Contractual Specification, Medical Decision Support