The representation of agents as resources for the purpose of professional regulation and global health workforce planning

Abstract

International migration of health professionals has been increasing in our globalized world, compounding a pressing need to improve information systems that confirm their qualifications and track health workforce volume. This paper reports on research to help address this need by introducing a framework for defining health professionals as agents. A case study and a categorical analysis of 11 metadata schemes was conducted. The results report and discuss three approaches to the representation of agents as either Access Point, Information Object, or Resource. The schemas that describe agents as resources best align with the representation of health professionals for the purpose of health workforce research.