A Multi-Agent Decision Support Model for Medical Referral Indication
No Thumbnail Available
Date
2008-10
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Addis Ababa University
Abstract
Medical Referral Decisions are clinical decisions by which clinicians determine referral
indication, type of required services and selection of appropriate providers in medical
referral systems. A referral indication is a decision made by clinicians to determine
whether referral is needed or not for a patient case under consideration. These decisions are
made in a clinical environment through referral systems that aim at providing of efficient
healthcare services by improving patient outcomes and decreasing cost incurred and time
spent for such services. The quality of referral decisions is highly dependent on the
efficiency and soundness of the decision making process. This inherently complicated
referral decision process depends on a complex mix of both clinical and non-clinical
factors such as patient, clinicians and healthcare system determinants. Recently, a Multi-
Agent Referral Decision Support (MARDS) framework [6] has been proposed with the aim
of improving the quality of referral decisions. However, it doesn’t fully address the referral
indication aspect that is a key component of the medical referral process, which may cause
under-referral and over-referral problems.
This thesis proposes a Multi-Agent Decision Support (MADS) model for Referral
Indication, Service Identification and Local Consultation aspects of medical referral aimed
at providing improved decision support to clinicians. The proposed decision support model
undertakes the analysis of determinants related to the referral indication, service
identification and local medical consultation. This aid is provided through the social agents
that interact and cooperate in the clinical environment, which are designed to interact with
the existing CIS (Clinical Information System) and the CKB (Clinical Knowledgebase) to
fetch critical information which supports the analysis of decision making.
It is believed that this model extends the MARDS framework by addressing the referral
indication and service identification aspect for its realization. Moreover, the local medical
consultation service is believed to address the communication and organizational
challenges of the medical consultation process and in turn contributes for the minimization
of over-referrals and helps to overcome clinical uncertainties.
Keywords: Medical Referral Decisions, Referral Indication, Service Identification, Local
Consultation, Multi-Agent Systems, Decision Support Systems
Description
Keywords
Medical Referral Decisions, Referral Indication, Service Identification, Local Consultation, Multi-Agent Systems, Decision Support Systems