Healthcare applications based on networked agents

Healthcare has been recognized as one of the most important areas for networked enterprise applications and services. Presently, information technologists and systems engineers all over the world are working towards achieving better efficiency and quality of service in various sectors of healthcare, such as telemedicine, hospital management, patient-care, and treatment This paper addresses the issue of more effective and efficient handling of doctor-patient relationship. The idea is to use Software Agent technology to extend the patient-doctor relationship beyond the physical and logistical limitation of face-to-face consultations in the management of diabetes. Software agents can provide an extension of the doctor by interacting with the patent via a computer and the Internet. The agent is visualized as an anthropomorphic figure to further enhance the patient interaction.