Improving flexibility and dependability of remote patient monitoring with agent-oriented approaches

Context: Remote Patient Monitoring (RPM) enables physicians to perform diagnosis and/or treatment remotely through sensors connected via a communication network. Dependability and flexibility are recognized as two key technological requirements for RPM take off. Research question: We address the questions of how RPM systems designed and implemented as multiagent systems (MASs) can ensure flexibility and dependability, and which agent-oriented approach – if any – is more suitable to achieve this goal. Method: We analyzed five state-of-the-art agent-oriented approaches suitable to engineer dependable and/or flexible systems. We planned to adopt the “winner” approach to realize a working prototype able to show the potential of an agent-oriented approach to RPM. Results: No approach among the five dominates the others w.r.t. all the ten features that drove our analysis. In absence of a winner, we selected the approach we are more familiar with, namely parametric trace expressions. We used them to verify properties modeling existing medical guidelines and to developed a prototype where newborns suffering from hypoglycemia must be continuously monitored at home. Conclusions: Parametric trace expressions proved to be suitable for engineering flexible and dependable RPM systems. This finding can be generalized: agent-oriented approaches showing features similar to those of parametric trace expressions can serve to achieve the same goal.