Palliative Care and Multi-Agent Systems: A Necessary Paradigm Shift

Palliative care is intended to relieve caregivers of physical, psychological, and even spiritual elements of care. One of the most prevalent issues facing this form of care is a lack of healthcare resources and structures to deal with an aging population. This aging population is placing a strain on the healthcare system, prompting a need for a shift in system management. A potential answer to this issue may be the Multi-Agent System (MAS). This category of computerized networking system was created by programmers to gather relevant health information on a patient and allow for the system to act with other agents to decide the best course for disease management. It can also allow for a multidisciplinary healthcare team to make more informed plans of actions for their patients by providing accurate and up-to-date information resulting from a greater synergetic mesh. MASs could fulfill the demands of a rising chronic illness population and deliver high-quality care, indicating a major paradigm shift within the US. In this review, we will evaluate the aging population and contributing factors, palliative care and the need for the multi-agent system, and clinical considerations involving examples from healthcare systems both on and beyond US shores.