Agent-based Mobile Middleware Architecture (AMMA)
Medical Data Transmission over Cellular Network
Technology description
Mobile clinical applications are used in emergency care, to capture patient-care data and transfer it to a remote data server. The digital form of medical data is called an electronic medical record (EMR). This transfer requires that the EMR be delivered accurately and in sequence to avoid the duplication of records.
Due to intermittent wireless connection problems in remote locations, and the inability of the mobile devices to connect with heterogeneous wireless networks at all times because of limited resources and battery life, the reliability of the clinical message transmission process is at risk. The inconsistency in messaging instance causes delivery of multiple copies and loss of vital health information.
The middleware architecture developed is a three-layer architecture with a standard clinical messaging interface that guarantees exactly-once message delivery. AMMA uses mobile agents for secured message delivery. Mobile agents perform their actions according to an agent migration protocol (AMP) applying a unique compact message template derived from Health Level Seven – Clinical Document Architecture (HL7-CDA), which is a global health records standard specification.
The protocol is designed to guarantee in sequence delivery of an EMR, with mechanisms for conformance checking and exactly-once delivery methods, meeting HL7 communication requirements to avoid duplication of medical records and medical errors. In addition, an adaptive intelligent user-interface with event controls is included to monitor battery power, active wireless network interface and location information, for improving the reliability of the communication.
Advantages
The mobile agent paradigm has several advantages over the traditional client/server model:
- Decreases communication latency and saves network bandwidth
- Enables offline processing during link disconnection
- Utilizes local resources
- Provides a quick notification process
- Enables dynamic adaptation of volatile resources
- Guarantees asynchronous migration and processing
- Provides encapsulation of communication protocols between agents
These advantages make the mobile agent migration model more beneficial and suitable for mobile clinical communication.
Stage of development
A prototype has been developed and tested successfully on a small scale (laptops and tablets).
Intellectual property
This technology is available for licensing.
Contact information
Office of Research Services, Industry-Government Services
University of New Brunswick
Phone: (506) 453-4674
partner@unb.ca
