Using web technology and Java mobile software agents to manage outside referrals.

A prototype, web-based referral application was created with the objective of providing outside primary care providers (PCP's) the means to refer patients to the Massachusetts General Hospital and the Brigham and Women's Hospital. The application was designed to achieve the two primary objectives of providing the consultant with enough data to make decisions even at the initial visit, and providing the PCP with a prompt response from the consultant. The system uses a web browser/server to initiate the referral and Java mobile software agents to support the workflow of the referral. This combination provides a light client implementation that can run on a wide variety of hardware and software platforms found in the office of the PCP. The implementation can guarantee a high degree of security for the computer of the PCP. Agents can be adapted to support the wide variety of data types that may be used in referral transactions, including reports with complex presentation needs and scanned (faxed) images Agents can be delivered to the PCP as running applications that can perform ongoing queries and alerts at the office of the PCP. Finally, the agent architecture is designed to scale in a natural and seamless manner for unforeseen future needs.