Surgery – Diagnostic testing
Reexamination Certificate
1999-06-07
2001-08-07
Nasser, Jr., Robert L. (Department: 3736)
Surgery
Diagnostic testing
Reexamination Certificate
active
06270456
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to computerized medical diagnostic systems. More specifically, the invention is directed to a computerized system for time-based diagnosis of a patient's complaint by use of dynamic data structures.
2. Description of the Related Technology
Health care costs currently represent a significant portion of the United States Gross National Product and are rising faster than any other component of the Consumer Price Index. Moreover, usually because of an inability to pay for medical services, many people are deprived of access to even the most basic medical care and information.
Many people delay in obtaining, or are prevented from seeking, medical attention because of cost, time constraints, or inconvenience. If the public had universal, unrestricted, and easy access to medical information, many diseases could be prevented. Likewise, the early detection and treatment of numerous diseases could keep many patients from reaching the advanced stages of illness, the treatment of which is a significant part of the financial burden attributed to our nation's health care system. It is obvious that the United States is facing health-related issues of enormous proportions and that present solutions are not robust.
Previous attempts at tackling the health care problem have involved various forms of automation. Some of these attempts have been in the form of a dial-in library of answers to medical questions. Other attempts have targeted providing doctors with computerized aids for use during a patient examination. These methods involve static procedures or algorithms. What is desired is an automated way of providing to a patient medical advice and diagnosis that is quick, efficient and accurate. Such a medical advice system should be modular to allow expansion for new types of medical problems or methods of detection.
One way of conducting an interview of a patient includes medical diagnostic scripts. What is needed is an efficient method of representing the medical knowledge of experts in their specialties in a script format. The scripts should utilize dynamic structures to quickly and efficiently reach a diagnosis of the patient.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
List-Based Processing is a method of diagnosing diseases that works by arranging diseases, symptoms, and questions into a set of nested Disease, Symptom, and Question (DSQ) lists in such a way that the lists can be processed to generate a dialogue with a patient. Each question to the patient generates one of a set of defined responses, and each response generates one of a set of defined questions. This establishes a dialogue that elicits symptoms from the patient. The symptoms are processed and weighted to rule diseases in or out. The set of ruled-in diseases establishes the diagnosis. A List-Based Processing system organizes medical knowledge into formal, structured lists or arrays, and then applies a special algorithm to those lists to automatically select the next question. The responses to the questions lead to more questions and ultimately to a diagnosis.
In one aspect of the present invention, there is a method of performing an automated diagnostic session with a patient, comprising storing in a computer a plurality of disease scripts, each script being associated with a disease, storing medical information specific to the patient in a patient medical history, selecting a set of diseases scripts to be considered for diagnosis based on the patient medical history, executing a disease script associated with a selected one of the set of disease scripts, collecting additional medical information from the execution of the disease script, and automatically changing the set of disease scripts to be further considered for diagnosis based on the patient medical history and the collected medical information.
The medical advice system also includes a geographic-based list of differential diagnoses in the population in which the patient resides, which, when processed by the list-based processor, is turned into a patient specific differential diagnosis. The system, also includes a table in which the frequency of the diseases is kept to allow the system to evaluate the patient using the probabilities or incidence of diseases in the population in which the patient resides. The system may also give patient specific and context sensitive recommendation(s) for the laboratory test(s) of choice and the imaging modality of choice to further help define a diagnosis. The system may invoke a “re-enter” function to allow for the laboratory test(s) of choice and the imaging modality of choice to be performed and then the results to be conveyed to the patient, the patient's health-care giver(s) and/or any other desired entity. The system may invoke the “re-enter” function to allow a patient to perform physical examination maneuvers (on self or via an assistant) and re-consult the system to further refine the diagnosis.
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First Opinion Corporation
Knobbe Martens Olson & Bear LLP
Nasser Jr. Robert L.
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