Telephonic communications – Audio message storage – retrieval – or synthesis – Message management
Reexamination Certificate
1997-08-05
2001-02-20
Weaver, Scott L. (Department: 2748)
Telephonic communications
Audio message storage, retrieval, or synthesis
Message management
C379S088230
Reexamination Certificate
active
06192112
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to providing medical information such as laboratory test results to patients.
DESCRIPTION OF RELATED ART
Medical providers and testing facilities are typically deluged with demands on their time and have limited support for delivery and tracking of test results. Primary care and other medical providers often order various tests during their office evaluation of patients. The tests may range from a pregnancy test with a single yes-no type answer that will be reported the next day to batteries of tests with more than fifty result values that may come back at different times over several weeks. The task of reporting these results to patients can be horrendously complex and consuming, but, at the same time, errors or lapses in reporting can be life threatening. The task is often accomplished with great effort and not uncommonly with less than ideal perfection or completeness.
U.S. Patent Application entitled, “Method and Apparatus for Automated Patient Information Retrieval,” Seymour A. Rapaport, M.D., Jeffrey A. Rapaport et al., filed Dec. 29, 1995 referenced above and incorporated by reference, describes an approach for patient information retrieval that significantly eases this work and can allow essentially complete reporting of test results to the patients in a professional practice. The approach described there increases the medical provider's efficiency and effectiveness in accomplishing the test result reporting task many fold. However, despite the fact that the provider's medical practice and patient care is significantly improved in that it is possible for essentially all tests to be reported, the provider must accomplish some added tasks, and therefore there are some added demands on the provider's time.
SUMMARY OF INVENTION
The present invention streamlines the provider's tasks so that the provider is involved time-wise only to the extent that he or she wants to and has to be. This results in essentially complete reporting of patient tests and other appropriate patient messages in the medical practice with little added efforts on the providers' part and improved patient care and safeguards to patients' health.
There are several additions and innovations that enable these goals: The system improves the use of standard patient messages and allows for extensive uploading of results of tests by testing facilities directly into the account owner's patient message database for access by the account owner's patients. This significantly eases the burden of test reporting for the provider, but comes with the cost of making the provider less aware than is desirable to certain test results—e.g., critical results, results that the provider is especially interested in knowing, results that the testing facility feels need direct provider attention, and time-sensitive results. To prevent such occurrences, the system has several types of alerts for the providers and upload-sources (testing facilities).
Upload-sources may upload specific results into an upload-source note field that is in the mailbox for account owners to review. The content in this field is available only to medical personnel and not the patient.
A finder function and patient identifier feature enables the account owner to quickly locate the proper mailbox for a patient on the system for placing a patient message when the test results return.
The system may be configured to include a database with patient record data that automatically uploads much of the information needed for the mailbox on the system when needed; text-to-speech software allows this information to be converted to speech which may be played over a telephone line by a interactive voice response system.
A plurality of reports is composed by the system to aid account owners and upload-sources. These reports automatically record the functioning of the system including account owner placement and retrieval of messages and alerts, patient message retrieval, and a summary of message content.
An array of parameters allows for significant customization of a particular system at the account level, mailbox pool level, and system level. This customization allows features of the system to be available as desired thereby offering a highly customized solution to the many different needs of a variety of users of the system.
The system shares information resources through a variety of interfaces and also supports a public application programming interface (API), which allows access to third party software and solutions.
The system may be configured to serve several members of the same provider group with the same access means, e.g. telephone number, with the inclusion of a mailbox number that is linked to an account.
According to one aspect of the present invention, a system for providing medical information to a patient is provided. The system comprises a medical information software engine. A memory location having a voice mailbox is coupled to the engine. The voice mailbox is accessible by the patient, the upload-source, such as a laboratory test facility, and the account owner, such as a medical provider. The voice mailbox includes a first segment for storing a patient message for the patient, a second segment for account owner information supplied by the account owner, and a third segment for storing upload-source information, such as test results. The upload-source is coupled to the medical information software engine and may provide the test results. An interactive voice response system interface is coupled to the medical information engine and the voice mailbox. The interface provides the account owner information in the second segment responsive to an account owner input.
UPLOAD-SOURCE UPLOADING PATIENT MESSAGES AND PATIENT RETRIEVAL ALERTS INTO MAILBOXES THAT HAVE ASSOCIATED ACCOUNT OWNER CHART NOTES
According to an aspect of the present invention, a set of pre-recorded patient messages are stored in the appropriate patient mailboxes in response to account owner input or input from an expert system where the expert system responds to test result data at the upload-source. The expert system rule-base is in agreement with the standards and practices of the upload-source and account owners involved.
According to an aspect of the present invention, messages may include textual data which is translated into speech data using text-to-speech software and stored in a patient voice mailbox.
According to an aspect of the present invention, both the account owner and the uploading source may be notified by a patient-retrieval alert if a patient does not access the voice mailbox within specified time period.
According to another aspect of the present invention, when data is uploaded into a mailbox, the upload-source may assign responsibility of the mailbox to a particular account owner. The account owner would have the mailbox assigned to his or her account database, and have corresponding information sent to the account owner regarding the patient message and mailbox. The information may include alert information.
According to an aspect of the present invention, a patient voice mailbox may have a segment for storing an upload-source note wherein the upload-source may upload specific test results or messages into the upload-source note that the account owner can access but not the patient.
According to an aspect of the present invention, the system alerts a particular account owner when an upload-source note is uploaded into an assigned patient voice mailbox but a patient message is not stored in the assigned patient voice mailbox.
According to an aspect of the present invention, the upload-source may overwrite data in a mailbox if the patient voice mailbox data has not been accessed by patient or altered by an account owner. If the account owner has accessed the mailbox, and the upload-source alters data in the voice mailbox, the account owner is notified by an upload-source-change alert.
According to an aspect of the present invention, patients cannot receive certain pre-rec
Don Kent
Rapaport Jeffrey A.
Rapaport Seymour A.
Fliesler Dubb Meyer & Lovejoy LLP
Rapaport Seymour A.
Weaver Scott L.
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