3.1.2 Intelligent Agent Technology in the Health Care Environment
Desiree. J. Simons · INCOSE International Symposium · 2000
Abstract Most people think of intelligent agent technology and the Internet as being connected because of the awareness brought to search engines by the public's use of the Internet. However, agent technology has always been in existence, as for example in the banking environment where an agent might be the alert agent for detecting when a stock price reaches a certain point. Unfortunately, many of today's Internet agents are not considered “intelligent” mainly because they are incapable of defining their area of search and as such, their applications are somewhat limited. Efforts to make agents work more efficiently have led to the emergence of a new technology called “filtering” which makes use of the speed of computers and the ability of networks to communicate. This paper examines the factors that are driving the development of filtering as well as the role of agent technology in the ever‐changing landscape of computer systems development. Finally, the impact that this kind of technology will have on medical professionals and patients in our future health care environment is illustrated by a description of the Patient Advocate system being developed by Stanford University.