Surgery – Diagnostic testing
Reexamination Certificate
2000-10-30
2003-12-02
Hindenburg, Max F. (Department: 3736)
Surgery
Diagnostic testing
C600S301000, C600S316000, C128S920000, C705S003000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06656114
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a method of assisting a user in a medical self treatment, said self treatment comprising a plurality of actions.
The present invention also relates to a system/an apparatus for assisting a user in a medical self treatment, said self treatment comprising a plurality of actions.
In the following a user/patient will be a patient having diabetes.
For a number of years it has been possible to purchase various devices for the treatment of diabetes, e.g. for injecting insulin, for measuring blood sugar (such a device is referred to as BGM in the following), for withdrawing blood samples, and other accessories, the purpose of which is to enable the patient to nurse his disease discretely and with a high standard of safety.
Many diabetic patients are elderly people who can easily get insecure with respect to the medical equipment. It is very reassuring and therefore also very important that the user can have feedback from the system which confirms to the user that everything is OK right from the technical function of the system to the patient's physiological condition. This stretches out a psychological safety net under the patient, which contributes to improving the quality of life of patients having a disease such as diabetes.
Traditionally, diabetic people live under strict rules of “do's and don'ts”. There is a historical need in order to comply with a therapeutic regimen. The purpose of this being a well controlled blood glucose level (BGL) and thereby a much lesser risk of later complications. This is a highly undesirably situation from a ‘quality-of-life’ point of view. It often results in bad mood—which is known to lead to a poor BGL regulation. Thus an evil circle is created which is hard for the diabetic to break.
Additionally, in certain cultures/societies there is a reluctance against using syringes
eedles to administer medication and people therefore choose alternative ways to try to comply with a regimen. However, this often has the unfortunate result that people choose alternatives that do not fully or at all correspond to the optimal regimen and thereby choose wrong alternatives with adverse effects.
Further, the metabolism is a very complex and dynamic system. It is very hard to get and maintain an overview for the diabetic as many factors play a role. It is very likely that the diabetic looses an overview or relies on too simple rules of operation or eventually neglect the illness.
Various systems trying to ease the hazels of diabetes have been proposed over time. These systems have basically an accounting role and simply keep track of whatever input the user specifies. In these systems input of food and exercise are usually a task that the user needs to initiate. Systems that rely on the user to take action can be hard to make function well due to the user's reluctance to deal with it.
Patent specification WO 95/32480 discloses a medical information reporting system which has a patient sensor device controlled via a patient operated interface device by a micro-controller which writes data to a memory and a report writer. The specification further discloses a warning algorithm with zone boundary values which is specified by the user and consent to by a physician. This system simply keep track of whatever input the user specifies.
Patent specification WO 94/24929 discloses a patient support and monitoring system, which has a database located at a remote location for collection of information in a remote database from sensors and a medicine administration system. This system also keep track of whatever input the user specifies and may initiate a medical reaction on the basis of received parameters.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The object of the invention is to provide a method which provides a user with a freedom of operation with respect to a self-treatment.
This is achieved by guiding the user with respect to a self treatment by presenting options/possibilities in such a way that compliance to a regimen may be obtained in numerous ways.
More particularly, the invention relates to a method of assisting a user in a medical self treatment, said self treatment comprising a plurality of actions, said method comprising the steps of
collecting in a one or more databases data representing values of parameters relevant for said self treatment, where said method further comprises the step of
processing said one or more databases to provide the patient with the alternate choices between tow or more actions and a corresponding dose for each two or more actions.
Hereby, the user's self-treatments change from restrictions to possibilities thereby enhancing the overall ‘quality-of-life’ for the user and better ensuring that the user's self-treatment complies better or fully with a specified regimen by choosing proposed choices which complies with the regimen. This avoids that the user chooses actions and alternatives which do not fully or at all correspond to the optimal regimen due to a lack of a clear overview of the complex factors involved in the self-treatment.
By providing the user with a number of options he maychoose the one(s) he likes best and still obtain the right and full treatment instead of choosing the easiest and most appealing course of action on his own, which may be wrong or insufficient and result in adverse effects.
Additionally, the possibility of choices fulfilling a prescribed regimen makes the patient feel more in control of the treatment and enhances the therapeutic value of the treatment and improves the patient's ability to adapt his treatment to his daily life.
Additionally, the user's feeling of being ill is reduced, since the user has options of choices instead of a dictation of actions.
An additional object of the invention is to estimate one or more future values for one of said parameters, in order to obtain information of the user's condition in the near future, hereby enhancing the possibilities of presenting better/more relevant choices.
One way of estimating one or more future values may be done on the basis on a dynamic model representing the human metabolism.
An additional object of the invention is to provide effective monitoring of electronic data/information which are used by a patient for self-treatment of a disease, so that a greater level of safety, both functionally and emotionally, and an effective feedback to the patient are obtained.
The invention also relates to computer system having means for executing a program, where the program when executed is to make the computer execute the method according to claims 1-19.
By computer system is meant a system comprising processing means and being programmable at one time or another in order to execute a set of instructions/commands like a system for the self-treatment of a patient e.g. comprising one or more of sensor, medication administering device, data collection, and displaying means or a general computer system as a PC, laptop, palmtop, or a system having at least one device comprising a micro controller adapted to execute a program (either in hard- and/or software), and so on.
The invention further relates to a computer readable medium having a program recorded thereon, where the program when executed is to make the computer execute the method according to claims 1-19.
The computer readable medium may e.g. be a CD-ROM, magnetic disk, ROM circuit, a network connection or generally any medium that may provide a computer system with information of how to execute instructions/commands.
The above mentioned system and method need as good as possible data collection in order to present relevant and useful choices/proposals to the user. In a preferred embodiment a system/method relating to individual apparatuses, which are provided with electronic communications equipment so that the apparatuses—when in a state of mutual communication—frequently exchange information between them, are provided. Hereby a greater functional safety can be achieved and the total data capacity of the system can
Aasmul Søren
Christensen Lars Hofmann
Poulsen Jens Ulrik
Astorino Michael
Began, Esq. Marc A.
Bosk, Esq. Richard W.
Green, Esq. Reza
Novo Noadisk A/S
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