Autor(es):
Costa, Ricardo André Fernandes 
; Novais, Paulo ; Lima, Luís ; Cruz, José Bulas ; Neves, José
Data: 2009
Identificador Persistente: http://hdl.handle.net/1822/18993
Origem: RepositóriUM - Universidade do Minho
Assunto(s): e-Health; Ambient assisted living; Collaborative networks organizations
Descrição
Collaborative Work plays an important role in today’s organizations and normally in areas
where decisions must be made. However, any decision that involves a collective or group of
decision makers is, by itself, complex but is becoming normal in recent years. In this work we
present the VirtualECare project (Figure 10), intelligent multi‐agent system able to monitor,
interact and serve its customers, which are, normally, in need of care services.
In the last years there has been a substantially increase in the number of people needed of
intensive care, especially among the elderly, a phenomenon that is related to population
ageing. However, this is not exclusive of the elderly, as diseases as obesity, diabetes, and blood
pressure have been increasing among young adults. As a new reality, it has to be dealt by the
health sector, and particularly by the public one. Thus, the importance of finding new and cost
effective ways for health care delivery are of particular importance, especially when one want
them not to be removed from their “habitat”. Following this line of thinking, the VirtualECare
project will be presented, like similar ones that preceded it.
Recently we have assisted to a growing interest in combining the advances in information
society ‐ computing, telecommunications and presentation – in order to create Group Decision
Support Systems (GDSS). Indeed, the new economy, along with increased competition in
today’s complex business environments, takes the companies to seek complementarities in
order to increase competitiveness and reduce risks. Under these scenarios, planning takes a
major role in a company life. However, effective planning depends on the generation and
analysis of ideas (innovative or not) and, as a result, the idea generation and management
processes are crucial.
Our objective is to apply the above presented GDSS to a new area. We believe that the use of
GDSS in the healthcare arena will allow professionals to achieve better results in the analysis of
one’s Electronically Clinical Profile (ECP). This achievement is vital, regarding the explosion of
knowledge and skills, together with the need to use limited resources and get better results.
