A Mobile Agent Approach for Ubiquitous and Personalized eHealth Information Systems

The past years have witnessed a heavy investment and research in the eHealth sector. The work of medical practitioners at all levels is becoming more information intensive as sophisticated medical equipment and computer applications are more widely used. At the same time, the demands of the patients / citizens are increasing due to the innovative medical and scientific advances. Digital technologies are becoming more important in health management aiming to reduce the cost and to deliver health care services at a distance. In addition, the Internet is increasingly used by citizens to obtain medical information, therefore it is critical that the Web-based eHealth content and services are developed efficiently, complying with the established quality criteria and being available for all in an adaptive and personalized manner delivered by multiple and ubiquitous delivery channels. In this context, the aim of this paper is to argue that in the face of the existing systems and platforms diversity and information sparsity, mobile agent technologies can provide the base for ubiquitous, transparent, secure, interoperable, and integrated eHealth information systems for the provision of adapted and personalized sustainable services to the citizens.