a mediation framework for achieving interoperability in pervasive grid-based homecare systems
Healthcare is an increasingly collaborative enterprise involving many individuals and organizations that coordinate their efforts toward promoting quality and efficient delivery of healthcare. In cases where healthcare delivery is intended to be provided at patients' homes, the delivery process can be facilitated through the use of pervasive homecare systems. In such systems, interoperability is highly demanded in all the levels including the service and data levels. This paper presents a mediator-based approach for achieving interoperability in pervasive process-based healthcare systems built on a Grid infrastructure. The system's architecture is based on a Grid infrastructure upon which healthcare processes are automated using the Business Process Execution Language (BPEL). Client applications are portal-based, operate on mobile devices and can use radio frequency identification (RFID) technology for wireless capture of identification data. The proposed mediation framework enables decoupling of the healthcare processes and the underlying Grid middleware infrastructures. In particular, it resolves issues raised by both the diversity of the middleware infrastructures and the diversity of data formats and semantics used in the databases exposed by Grid middleware services. The framework is built on a software platform that exploits agent and workflow technology, thus providing robustness, high flexibility and fault tolerance in an environment as dynamic and heterogeneous as healthcare.
interoperability business process execution language workflow systems grid portal application software agents