VirtualECare: Group Decision Supported by Idea Generation and

ArgumentationRicardo Costa1, Paulo Novais2, Goretti Marreiros1, João Neves2, Carlos Ramos1

and José Neves2

1 Polytechnic of Oporto, Portugal

2 DI - CCTC, Universidade do Minho – PortugalPRO-VE 2008

Poland, September 2008

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OutlineIntroductionThe VirtualECare ProjectGroup Support in Collaborative Networks Organizations

Group Support SystemsMeeting PhasesIdea GenerationArgumentation Module

Conclusion

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IntroductionHuman population is ageing:

Old age brings new problems.Problems not exclusive of the elderly:

Diseases are increasing between young people.Important to find new and cost effective ways for healthcare;VirtualECare project:

Combine the advances in information society with GDSS;Apply theses advances to the healthcare sector.

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Ambient Intelligence (AmI)

Relatively new paradigm in IT;

Digital environment:aware of presence;

sensitive;

adaptive;

responsive.

Combine ubiquitous information, communication, and entertainment, with enhanced personalization, natural interaction and intelligence.

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AmI (2)

“Ambient Intelligence envisions a world where people are surronded by Intelligence and intuitive interfaces embedded in the everyday objects arround them!” [PattieMaes]

“These interfaces recognize and respond to the presenceand behavior of an individual in a personalized andrelevant way.” [Elisabetta Farella]

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AmI (3)Ubiquitous

Computingintegrate micro-processors in day-to-day objects.

Communicationallow day-to-day object to

communicate with each other.

Intelligent user interfaces

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AmI in healthcare

New paradigm.

Digital environment aware of presence:Able to adapt and response;

Characteristics present an advantage in Healthcare:Make patients feel “better”;

Provide personalized, intelligent, assistive technology, promoting patient recovery.

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AmI in healthcare (2)

Medical control support devices:Wearable Computing (http://www.biodevices.pt):

Blood pressure;

Temperature;

Etc...

Home:

Aware of patient condition;

Aware of patient movements;

Make emergency calls;

etc..

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AmI in healthcare (3)

Examples:IST Vivago®

Telecare

EMR at Hospital Geral Santo António - Porto

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The VirtualECare ProjectIntelligent multi-agent system able to interact and serve its costumers;

Interconnected to:healthcare institutions;

leisure centers;

training facilities;

shops;

relatives;

others.

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The VirtualECare Project (2)

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Group DecisionThe increase of group decision processes in organizations contribute to the emerge of Group Decision Support Systems (GDSSs) in the 80’s

GDSS aims reduce the loss associated to group work and to maintain or improve the gains

There several commercial and non-commercial GDSSs

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Decision Making Structures

Individual

Person

Team Group Organization

NegotiatedUnilateralComputational System

Multi-participant

Decision making

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Group Support in Collaborative Networks Organizations

Group Support Systems:Collaborative Work:

Presupposes the existence of a group;A group as elements:

Variable number;Variable persistency;Variable location;Variable organizations;Variable timeline.

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Group Support in Collaborative Networks Organizations (2)

Meeting phases:Pre-meeting:

The facilitator prepares the meeting:Establish the meeting goals;

Proceeds with the group formation;

Selects the best supporting tools.

In-Meeting:Participants try to achieve meeting goal;

Facilitator monitors;

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Group Support in Collaborative Networks Organizations (3)

Meeting phases:Post-meeting:

Evaluate the results;

Identify and store useful information.

Pre-Meeting In-Meeting Post-Meeting

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VirtualECare Group Decision Architecture

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VirtualECare Group Decision - component

Setup module – it will be operated by a facilitator during the pre-meeting phase, in charge of configuration and parameterization activities;Multi-criteria module – it will be operated by a facilitator during the pre-meeting phase, being in charge of the definition of the evaluation criteria and scaling of all the sub-systems; Argumentation module - This module is based on the IBIS (Issue Based Information System) argumentation model, developed by Ritteland his colleagues in the early 70’s, where an argument is a statement or a belief, which may support or pointed out to one or more thoughts.Voting module - This module is responsible for allowing each intervenient of the decision group component to “vote” for his preferred choice, normally the one most similar to his “opinion”.

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Idea Generation (1)The Group Decision module requires a real effectiveness of the decision making process;

The use of an idea generation tool is crucial;

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Idea Generation (2)Idea generation techniques:

Brainstorming;

Nominal Group Technique (NGT);

Mind-mapping;

Etc …

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Idea Generation (3)Brainstorming – it is probably the best-known creative tool. It can be used in most situations, although in most cases the rules that oversee it must be perceived by the group members. It comes with all its potential when and independent facilitator manages the process (so the group can focus on the creative tasks). In general, a brainstorming takes between 30 (thirty) minutes to 1 (one) hour, depending on the difficulty of the problem and the motivation of the decision group. Due to this detail it cannot be used in situations of life or death, but it may and is going to be used in assessing patients quality-of-life;Mind-mapping – it is best used when one needs to explore and/or develop ideas to help in getting a solution to a specific problem, or when we need to take notes and/or summarize meetings. It may be used to obtain instant answers in critical situations.

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A decision tree of a specific problem

In Mind-mapping the specific problem is presented in the form of a decision tree, being the vital data obtained, for instance, from the sensors attached to the supported user

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Argumentation Module (1)IBIS model derivation:

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Argumentation Module (2)The questions are the goals of the meeting;

Ideas are the alternatives;

Arguments are the pros or cons vis-à-vis a given idea.

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VirtualECare Group Decision

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Forum

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Argumentation Module (3)Once a decision has been made, it is (automatically) sent to the monitored person.

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ConclusionA new reality in the healthcare sector:

a dignified care provisioning to all;without delocalizing;

This paper describes the VirtualECare project:special incidence on the Group Decision module;supports for meetings allowing the sharing of ideas and allowingeach one to “defend” those ideas in order to reach consensus or majority;

Future work:the argumentation module will allow not only a simple way of justifying opinions, but also a persuasive argumentation in order to allow each element to try influence other through the confrontation of opinion.

VirtualECare: Group Decision Supported by Idea Generation and

ArgumentationRicardo Costa1, Paulo Novais2, Goretti Marreiros1, João Neves2, Carlos Ramos1

and José Neves2

1 Polytechnic of Oporto, Portugal

2 DI - CCTC, Universidade do Minho – PortugalPRO-VE 2008

Poland, September 2008