Surgery – Diagnostic testing
Reexamination Certificate
2001-02-26
2003-09-02
Winakur, Eric F. (Department: 3736)
Surgery
Diagnostic testing
C128S920000, C705S002000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06612985
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates generally to a health care method and system and, more particularly, to a method and system for monitoring and treating a patient who has one or more diagnosed conditions and is located at a remote location from a treatment processing system.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Monitoring patients with chronic illnesses, such as congestive heart failure, diabetes and asthma, represents one of the greatest challenges facing medicine today. Patients with chronic illnesses require ongoing, follow up treatment and care to properly manage their conditions. Unfortunately, a number of these patients do not receive ongoing treatment and care, receive ongoing treatment and care on a sporadic basis, or receive ongoing treatment and care which is not in accordance with recommended guidelines. As a result, these patients often unnecessarily suffer from symptoms of their chronic illness which could have been minimized or prevented with proper ongoing treatment and care. Additionally, some of these patients require hospitalization visits which may have been preventable and, tragically, a few of these patients may die as a result of receiving improper ongoing, treatment and care.
More specifically, and by way of example, asthma affects about fifteen million people in the United States. Long term control of asthma is possible with medications such as inhaled steroids, but in order to reduce adverse effects, use of the lowest possible dose is recommended. Determining the proper dosage requires ongoing monitoring of the patient. Monitoring of patient status is possible with the use of simple Peak Flow Meter measurements of breath rate, which the patient can do himself. Unfortunately, many patients with asthma are not properly monitored and cared for on an ongoing basis. Studies of children and adults have found that less than 50% of the patients were receiving anti-inflammatory therapy as recommended by the NIH Guidelines and only 28% of the adult patients had written action plans that told them how to manage their asthma and control an exacerbation, as set forth in the “Practical Guide for the Diagnosis and Management of Asthma,” NIH publication 974053, 1997, p. 1. As a result, asthma is the third leading cause of preventable hospitalizations in the United States. Asthma causes 1.5 million emergency room visits, 470,000 hospitalizations and more than 5000 deaths annually, at least a portion of which are preventable.
One possible solution to this problem is internet-based monitoring of patients. Internet-based monitoring of chronically ill patients is in its infancy, but provides an attractive platform for the surveillance of such patients. A trial in 1998 found that patients using Patient Infosystem's internet-based asthma disease management system had: 36% lower health costs; 52% fewer urgent physician visits; and 67% fewer emergency room visits compared to usual care patients as set forth at http://www.ptisys.com/web
ews/1998/pr11-10-98.html. These are promising results.
Another approach is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,024,699 for, “Systems, Methods, and Computer Program Products for Monitoring, Diagnosing, and Treating Medical Conditions of Remotely Located Patients” which is herein incorporated by reference. With this system, method, and product, medical conditions of a plurality of remotely located patients are monitored, diagnosed, prioritized and treated using a central data processing system configured to communicate with and receive data from a plurality of respective patient monitoring systems. Unfortunately, there are a number of limitations with this approach. For example, this approach fails to take into account subjective data on each patient's condition, does not customize a diagnosis and a treatment plan based on the each patient's particular medical history, does not directly notify an emergency service provider in the event of a detected emergency, and does not monitor physician compliance with prescribed treatment guidelines in treating these patients.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
A method for monitoring and treating a patient with one or more diagnosed conditions in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention includes a few steps. A current assessment of each of the diagnosed conditions is determined in a treatment processing system. The current assessment is based on objective data and subjective data about each of the diagnosed conditions from the patient who is at a remote location and on one or more assessment guidelines for each of the diagnosed conditions. Next, an existing treatment plan for each of the diagnosed conditions is updated using the treatment processing system. The updated treatment plan is based on the existing treatment plan, the current assessment and on one or more treatment guidelines for each of the diagnosed conditions. The updated treatment plan for each of the diagnosed conditions is then transmitted to the patient for application by the patient at the remote location.
A system for monitoring and treating a patient with one or more diagnosed conditions in accordance with another embodiment of the present invention includes an assessment processing system and a treatment processing system. The assessment processing system determines a current assessment of each of the diagnosed conditions based on objective data and subjective data about each of the diagnosed conditions from the patient and on one or more assessment guidelines for each of the diagnosed conditions. The treatment processing system updates an existing treatment plan for each of the diagnosed conditions based on the existing treatment plan, the current assessment and on one or more treatment guidelines for each of the diagnosed conditions to generate an updated treatment plan for each of the diagnosed conditions.
A method for monitoring and treating a patient with one or more diagnosed conditions in accordance with another embodiment of the present invention also includes a few steps. First, a current assessment of each of the diagnosed conditions is determined using a treatment processing system. The current assessment is based on data about each of the diagnosed conditions from the patient who is at a remote location and on one or more assessment guidelines for each of the diagnosed conditions. Next, an existing treatment plan for each of the diagnosed conditions is updated using the treatment processing system. The updated treatment plan for each of the diagnosed conditions is generated based on the existing treatment plan, the current assessment, and on one or more treatment guidelines for each of the diagnosed conditions. In this process, at least one of the current assessment or the updated treatment plan for each of the diagnosed conditions is also determined or updated based on one or more customized guidelines.
A system for monitoring and treating a patient with one or more diagnosed conditions in accordance with another embodiment of the present invention includes an assessment processing system and a treatment processing system. The assessment processing system determines a current assessment of each of the diagnosed conditions. The current assessment is based on data about each of the diagnosed conditions from the patient who is at a remote location and on one or more assessment guidelines for each of the diagnosed conditions. The treatment processing system updates an existing treatment plan for each of the diagnosed conditions. The updated treatment plan is generated based on the current assessment and the on one or more treatment guidelines for each of the diagnosed conditions. With this system, at least one of the current assessment or the updated treatment plan for each of the diagnosed conditions is also determined or updated based on one or more customized guidelines for the patient.
A method for monitoring for a patient with one or more diagnosed conditions in accordance with yet another embodiment of the present invention includes a few steps. First, a current assessment of each of the diagnosed condit
Eiffert Michael E.
Schwartz Lisa C.
McCrosky David J.
Nixon & Peabody LLP
University of Rochester
Winakur Eric F.
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