What This Example Shows
- A
HierarchicalSwarmconfigured as a virtual tumor board / case conference - An Attending Physician (director) coordinating four specialist workers: Radiologist, Pathologist, Cardiologist, and Hospitalist
- How the director synthesizes independent specialist opinions into one differential diagnosis, workup plan, and treatment recommendation
- Concrete cost-per-case versus a real-world in-person multi-specialty consult
- The difference between this pattern and a generic hospital staff swarm (the worker roster here is physicians-only, focused on diagnostic synthesis rather than nursing workflow)
This example runs on premium swarm infrastructure. You will need an active Swarms account with available credits to execute it. Manage credits and plans at https://swarms.world/platform/account.
Why This Matters
A real multi-disciplinary case conference (oncology tumor board, complex-cardiology rounds, MDT meeting) requires four to six specialists in the same room for an hour — easily $1,500 to $2,500 per case in loaded physician time, before scheduling delays. The job to be done is not “answer a medical question.” It is structured synthesis across specialties so the attending walks out with one defensible plan. The hierarchical swarm replicates exactly that shape: parallel specialist opinions, then a director who decides. You spend cents, you wait under a minute, and you get an artifact you can hand to a licensed reviewer.Step 1: Setup
.env file:
Step 2: Configure the Case Conference
Step 3: Define the Patient Case
This is the kind of multi-system presentation a single-specialist agent would underperform on — exactly the case worth taking to a board.Step 4: Build the Swarm
The director’s prompt is intentionally framed around review, decide, and produce a single structured artifact — not “write everything you know.” Specialists each own one lane.Step 5: Run the Conference
Workers do not see each other’s drafts — they each respond to the original task. The Attending Physician sees every specialist output and writes the final synthesis. This is the right shape for a case conference: independent opinions first, then one decision-maker.
The Cost Story
A real multi-specialty case conference is one of the most expensive things a hospital does:| Resource | Real-world cost | This swarm |
|---|---|---|
| Radiologist read + second opinion | $150 – $500 per study | Included |
| Pathology IHC interpretation | $200 – $600 per case | Included |
| Cardio-oncology consult | $400 – $800 per visit | Included |
| Hospitalist coordination time | $150 – $300 per case | Included |
| Tumor board attending time (1 hr) | $400 – $700 | Included |
| Per-case total (human team) | $1,300 – $2,900 | Typically under $1.00 |
Differentiation From Related Examples
- The Hospital Medical Team Swarm models a bedside care team (doctor + nurses + assistant) focused on intake and nursing tasks. This swarm models a case conference of physicians-only focused on diagnostic synthesis on a complex case.
- The ICD-10 Medical Analysis Swarm is a concurrent workflow for coding-level analysis. This swarm is hierarchical and produces a treatment plan, not codes.
Next Steps
- Try Claude Opus 4.8 as the model for the Attending Physician for stronger synthesis
- Adapt the worker roster for the Supply Chain Hierarchical Swarm pattern in any other domain
- Run a portfolio of cases overnight using Batch Swarm Completions