Novel smart software technologies for medical informatics

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Most employees utilize computers in their duties. The software systems with which these users accomplish their tasks can often be improved to provide only the information that is needed, at the appropriate time, with a minimum of effort. Employing the computer and its software to facilitate these operations for the user is termed an Electronic Performance Support System (EPSS). While most EPSS can be readily customized to suit an individual (for instance, font enlargement in a web browser) the ability of the EPSS itself to adapt to the corporate information sources when changes occur, is very poor - usually requiring the installation of a new software information management system and all the disruption which that entails. Companies are very aware of the notion of change management. Previous research done here has illustrated the viability of an adaptable EPSS and this proposal continues this work with application to the area of medical informatics and more specifically the ever-changing individual electronic health record, within which, there are many disparate knowledge sources that are not compatible, such as MR/CT images and their analyses, physician's clinical test results, and so on. The main property of the EPSS is to dispense information to the individual to allow self-assessments and better provide data involved in critical decision-making situations. To do this, the EPSS must translate knowledge of many types into a form that is useful for the individual; that is, we must accommodate the many different types of information in some form of software. Because the EPSS is based on software agents, the addition of a new knowledge source only requires the creation of a new software agent. Adding the agent does not require the software to be stopped or reissued in any manner. Much like adding expertise to a corporation by hiring experts that will provide a new corporate capability, the EPSS can dynamically accommodate the need to expand its knowledge bases without the need to stop or update the system off-line. Finally, migrating the EPSS to the WWW would produce a very powerful medical patient portal facility.