My colleague Tassilo PellegriniTassilo Pellegrini studied International Trade, Communication Science and Political Science. He started his career at the Department of Media Economics at the University of Salzburg and later worked as a project manager at Prognos AG, the European Center for Policy and Economic Research ... recently did an interview with Bo Hu, a researcher and former fellow at the Intelligence, Agent, Multimedia Group (IAM), University of Southampton: At present, Bo is working at the SAP Research Center CEC Belfast where his research focuses on the application of Semantic Web and Web 2.0 technologies in e-learning and e-healthcare. In the interview, he talks about the potential of Semantic Web and intelligent agent technologies in medicine and life sciences, which he sees as a discipline particularly suited for semantic technologies as “many sub-domains of medicine are subject to controlled nomenclatures providing solid ground upon which semantically enriched applications can be built.” About the potential of intelligent agents:

[...] in distributed environments, it is difficult to exploit the available data from different sources, especially data that is normally projected onto the body of a patient to reach diagnostic and prognostic decisions. Many of the available data are interrelated, calling for paradigms that facilitate knowledge discovery by intelligently integrating data sources.

An agent-based framework is particularly useful in this case where individual agents are equipped with “memory” and “reasoning/thinking” capabilities to constantly acquire new knowledge and solve allocated tasks. Communication among agents, prescribed by a common vocabulary/ontology, an ontology is a formal representation of knowledge as a set of concepts within a domain, and the relationships between those concepts. It is used to reason about the entities within that domain, and may be used to describe the domain. In theory, an ontology is a "formal, explicit ..., ensures the entire community works towards a common goal.

On the other hand, frameworks with agents encapsulating special functions deliver better customised and personalised healthcare. As a result, we will be witnessing more patient power and better adherence to treatment regimens.

Read the whole interview on the SWC website.

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