A Multi Agent Pharmacoinformatics Reference Model for the Improvement of Hospital Management

Abstract

The question of drug and the improvement of pharmaceutical care services is moving to the front line agenda of policy makers in the healthcare system. The expansion of drug-related problems and medical errors motivated healthcare organizations to focus on the adoption of information systems and technologies in pursuit of improving communications, signaling, analyzing, and reporting of adverse drug reactions and facilitating scenario-based interventions. This chapter focuses on the development of a reference pharmacoinformatics model that can be used to improve the quality of pharmaceutical care provided and the management of hospitals. The material used in this chapter was synthesized to document and analyze the main variables that derive the context of pharmaceutical care in local settings. It also benefited from international data managed by international organizations such as WHO and the information systems used to mine data related to adverse drug events at the level of national Pharmacovigilance Centers. The proposed intelligent multi-agent Pharmacoinformatics decision support model included a process model, a multi-agent architecture, and an integrated data processing model with clear description of agent functionalities. The model reflects three main modules: a data capture and update module, diagnosis module, and a pharmaceutical care and drug monitoring module. The chapter also reflects on the practical and managerial environment of the model and the basic considerations to be taken into account.