Data processing: measuring – calibrating – or testing – Measurement system – History logging or time stamping
Reexamination Certificate
2001-06-15
2004-07-20
Barlow, John (Department: 2863)
Data processing: measuring, calibrating, or testing
Measurement system
History logging or time stamping
C705S002000, C705S003000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06766277
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to management information systems for monitoring the public health, and, more particularly, to a computerized system for collecting information relevant to the incidence and type of disease and other off-nominal medical conditions among the general population, and compiling and analyzing that information. The system alerts the public health authorities to the presence of particular diseases or other off-nominal medical conditions in defined geographical regions, including diseases or other off-nominal medical conditions that could result from an act of biological or chemical terrorism; and serves as an “early warning network” for events of biological causes.
BACKGROUND
Public health management information systems gather information on the incidence of disease, information that enables the health authorities to act and, ideally, block the outbreak of an epidemic of disease. As a public health measure, the various States of the United States currently require treating physicians to notify public health authorities of the discovery of certain contagious diseases in a patient. The physician may give that notice by telephone or facsimile. Through that notification procedure relevant data of disease is collected.
Although the purpose of that notification is commendable, the procedure takes time from the physician's very busy schedule (or that of the physician's staff). In recent years physicians (and the physician's staff) have become busier than ever, overloaded with patients and paperwork, which inhibits reporting. Even so, the foregoing manual reporting system works, particularly when the disease is recognized as being of a very serious nature. As example, as reported in the newspapers recently, when a female business traveler, who flew by airplane between an African country to Canada and to the U.S., fell ill and was thought to have contracted the deadly and highly contagious Ebola virus, the reporting was swift. The report was followed by quick action taken by the public health authorities.
In addition to the reports prepared by physicians, there are other potential sources of important information regarding public health that may be culled. Examples include statistical information regarding the purchase of over-the-counter medications, and statistical information regarding school absence rates and work absence rates. The collection and compilation of such statistical information very labor-intensive and not done systematically.
For the majority of diseases or other off-nominal medical conditions, however, the foregoing collection and/or reporting procedure is unreliable, uncertain, and slower than desired. The public health authorities might even wish that it were possible to learn of the incidence of a disease without troubling the attending physicians or their staff. As an advantage, the present invention accomplishes such a task. With the present invention, pertinent data are gathered from many sources, including those previously cited; and the invention provides rapid and reliable correlation of such multi-source data into a more timely and more reliable warning of biological incidents.
Typically a large time delay occurs between the occurrences of a biological event, such as caused an accidental spill, accidental contamination, or an act of biological terrorism, and the time at which the public health authorities are able to conclude that a biological event is underway. In part, the delay is due to the gestation period of the biological agents that were released by the event, but most of the delay is caused by failing to notice a pattern of events until the effects are quite pronounced. Typically, the delay is on the order of a few weeks. Given the propagation patterns of biological agents, shortening delays in detection would have a major benefit in containment, diagnosis, and treatment.
For example, assume that a water plant serving a particular community becomes contaminated. Such contamination might be caused by a contaminated filter or by a filter that is incorrectly prepared prior to being placed in service. Such contamination might also be deliberately caused by an act of terrorism. In either event, some time will lapse before anyone notices the contamination or the effect of the contamination. The incident is likely to be more severe if the time delay to detection is longer, and less severe if the time delay is shorter. Hence, approaches that shorten the time delay are highly advantageous.
One device that could give notice is the monitoring device for the water of the treatment plant. The existing state of the art for sensors that are able to detect biological agents, however, appears to be fairly primitive. Existing sensors tend to be expensive, slow, require large sample sizes, and have no effective “stand-off” range (e.g., they must be located in very close physical proximity to the event). For many threat scenarios, the more likely “first notice” is less direct: The symptom observed is that many people start to fall ill. It is recognized that at any given time and place, a large number of people fall ill for many reasons. But by noticing that an abnormal trend of illnesses is taking place, one is able to ultimately detect the foregoing contamination.
The foregoing example of water plant contamination is not theoretical. Not long ago the population of a large city in the northern U.S. suffered a large number of illnesses and even deaths due to what turned out to be a fault in a local water treatment facility. First it was noticed that many people inexplicably became seriously ill; some died. After a while it became apparent that rates for certain events were well above normal. Only many weeks thereafter was information correlated to the point where the authorities were able to form a hypothesis regarding the cause. And more time passed before the correct cause was found and corrected. From the perspective of public health, the incident would have unfolded exactly the same way if the cause of the incident were due to deliberate contamination of the water treatment plant, rather than poor maintenance (as turned out to be the case). In the foregoing, the effect described appeared well before the cause could be determined.
An after-the-fact analysis of the incident shows that the first potential indicator of a problem was a huge increase in the purchase of over-the-counter anti-diarrhea medications. This was followed (several days later) by an increase in doctor visits by patients with similar complaints. Even later, hospitalizations and deaths followed. The present inventors recognize that the affected population turned first to self-diagnosis and self-medication, and only sought professional advice several days thereafter. Thus, the first clue of the existence of a problem would have been indications of the increase in the purchase of over-the-counter medications. As an advantage, the present method looks to the latter purchase information automatically. With the method described herein the foregoing incident would have unfolded differently. Through automatic culling of the first indication information as offered by the present invention, the method would have led to diagnosis and correction of the problem several weeks earlier than actually occurred. Many illnesses could have been moderated or avoided, and many deaths perhaps could have been avoided.
The foregoing example originated in part due to the neglect of some person or other. Diseases may also be cultivated and broadcast by nations as a weapon of war for disabling an enemy, or even as a weapon of terrorism. Terrorism is a technique by which a militarily-impotent barbaric state may secretly wage war (or, following defeat, continue to wage war) against a more powerful but “civilized” opponent in the hope that the terrorist acts cripple and/or demoralize the civilized foe to the point where the civilized foe loses its “will”, and is internally rendered defenseless. Because of the ability of a terrorist to hide their role if they elect to do so, t
Goldman Ronald M.
Northrop Grumman Corporation
Walling Meagan
LandOfFree
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