Policy Conflicts in Home Care Systems

Abstract

Technology to support care at home is a promising alternative to traditional approaches. However, home care systems present significant technical challenges. For example, it is difficult to make such systems flexible, adaptable, and controllable by users. The authors have created a prototype system that uses policy-based management of home care services. Conflict detection and resolution for home care policies have been investigated. We identify three types of conflicts in policy-based home care systems: conflicts that result from apparently separate triggers, conflicts among policies of multiple stakeholders, and conflicts resulting from apparently unrelated actions. We systematically analyse the types of policy conflicts, and propose solutions to enhance our existing policy language and policy system to tackle these conflicts. The enhanced solutions are illustrated through examples.