On an Exemplar Supporting Model-based Quality Assurance Research for Healthcare Systems-of-Systems

As healthcare is being massively digitized, it increasingly relies on the harmonious interaction of autonomous and interconnected software systems. In this context, it becomes crucial to ensure that the emergent behavior that occurs when these systems interact remains beneficial to the overall quality goals. This task requires that the interacting systems are conceptualized and further studied as a System-of-Systems (SoS). We present the design and prototypical implementation of an exemplar for such a Healthcare SoS (HSoS) which consists of different types of basic healthcare systems. Its typical quality goals, e.g., safety and interoperability, and selected technical characteristics, e.g., cloud-nativity and support for integration with robotics, render the exemplar representative of modern healthcare solutions. The exemplar simulates patient journeys which rely on the interaction of the constituent systems and thereby may capture the emergent behavior of the HSoS. Our aim is that the exemplar supports future research on quality assurance for HSoSs using model-based techniques, which are suitable for developing both SoSs and safety-critical systems. For each quality goal, we outline relevant challenges as well as our research plans.