CHI Systems will develop a prototype software tool known as CAPRA (a CAncer Patient data Retrieval Agent). CAPRA will act as an intelligent agent that can assist oncological researchers and diagnosticians in accessing, retrieving, navigating, and manipulating information from PDQ and CANCERLIT databases and other information sources available locally or through the National Information infrastructure. The CAPRA architecture will model the search and task sequencing strategies of human information gathering specialists so as to support anticipatory prediction of users' clinical information needs. This model will be captured and implemented using CHI Systems' innovative COGNET analysis methodology and BATON intelligent agent software construction tool. These technologies have previously been used to represent human expertise and construct intelligent agents in a variety of complex domains. Tasks to be performed during Phase I include defining the architecture and functionality of the intelligent agent, applying cognitive engineering techniques to build a COGNET model of the behaviors and strategies of human searchers, implementing that model using BATON software, testing and demonstrating the performance of the prototype agent, and incorporating the results of previous tasks into a feasibility assessment report and a plan to provide a more detailed demonstration of CAPRA's capabilities during Phase II.
