Surgery – Diagnostic testing
Reexamination Certificate
1999-12-23
2003-07-08
Winakur, Eric F. (Department: 3736)
Surgery
Diagnostic testing
C128S903000, C128S904000, C128S920000, C128S921000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06589169
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates generally to data processing systems, methods and computer program products and, more particularly, to medical data processing systems, methods and computer program products.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Chronic disease management conventionally involves routinely monitoring patients to identify health problems before they become medically severe. Chronic disease management may also involve monitoring exercise and diet patterns of patients, as well as adherence to and adjustments of prescribed medicine. A chronic disease that is a major health problem in the United States, and one that often reduces the life span of those who suffer from it, is diabetes mellitus. Diabetes mellitus relates to a group of disorders in which the human body does not produce sufficient insulin and, as a result, blood sugar is elevated. Diabetes management conventionally includes monitoring a patient's blood glucose for abnormalities; monitoring preventative health behaviors such as weight control and fat intake; and monitoring adherence to scheduled insulin regimens.
An important advance in diabetes treatment has been the advent of home blood glucose monitoring wherein glucose meters are used by patients to self-test blood-glucose levels. However, control of blood glucose may require that patients measure their blood sugar 3-4 times per day, record the data, use the data in a formula to adjust their insulin dosage, and frequently communicate the data to a physician or nurse to evaluate their progress. Unfortunately, physicians may not have the time required to review blood glucose data from patients on a regular basis, or to educate and/or motivate patients to follow complicated self-care regimens. Furthermore, some physicians may consider data obtained by patients unreliable and may require patients to come in for an office visit for testing. Requiring patients to make office visits may increase the cost of health care, and may reduce the likelihood that frequent (i.e., daily) adjustments to insulin levels are made.
To overcome the disadvantages of requiring diabetes patients to visit a physician's office, various health care organizations have implemented programs where case managers (i.e., persons with some level of medical training) telephone patients periodically to obtain blood glucose data and other information and to coordinate care. Unfortunately, with often hundreds of patients per case manager, personal contact with individual patients on a daily or even regular basis may be difficult. In addition, personal contact with individual patients on a regular basis may be somewhat expensive. Accordingly, case managers using conventional management techniques may not be able to adjust a patient's insulin dosage as often as necessary to adequately control blood glucose level.
In addition, patients with diabetes may often need feedback and encouragement to continue testing their glucose levels and reporting results to a case manager. Without regular positive feedback, patients may not perform self-tests with enough regularity or may not conduct tests properly.
Another approach used in chronic disease management involves automated voice messaging (AVM) services, wherein patients receive regular telephone calls providing various educational and motivational messages from case managers. Exemplary messages may include reminding a patient of a scheduled physician visit. Some AVM services involve one-way communication, wherein a recorded message is delivered to a patient, but no information is obtained from the patient. As a result, the medical condition of a patient may not be available unless the patient is examined in-person by a physician.
AVM services involving two-way communications may allow patients to respond to AVM telephone queries via a touch tone telephone. Information received from patients may be reviewed by a case manager. The case manager then may identify which patients require callbacks for gathering more detailed information, discussing problems, or providing further information. Unfortunately, AVM services involving two-way communications may require some level of human intervention to identify patients with medically severe conditions that require medical attention, such as a change in insulin dosage. Chronic disease management via AVM has another drawback in that delays may occur between the identification of a patient with a medically severe condition and actual treatment of the condition.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In view of the above discussion, it is an object of the present invention to allow health care providers to quickly and easily monitor many patients simultaneously and to automatically identify patients with medical conditions and to organize identified medical conditions by severity.
It is yet another object of the present invention to allow health care providers to quickly prepare revised medicine dosages for patients and quickly communicate revised dosage information to patients.
It is also an object of the present invention to facilitate effective patient behavior modification in remotely located patients by providing timely rewards for correct behavior.
These and other objects of the present invention are provided by methods, systems and computer program products for monitoring, diagnosing, prioritizing and treating medical conditions of a plurality of remotely located patients undergoing anticoagulation therapy using a central data processing system configured to communicate with and receive data from a plurality of respective patient monitoring systems. Patient monitoring systems are capable of receiving and storing patient data and may include a medicine dosage algorithm for using the stored patient data to generate medicine dosage recommendations to a patient.
A central data processing system may be configured to obtain patient data from each patient monitoring system, to analyze the obtained patient data, and to identify medical conditions requiring medical attention. A central data processing system may also implement medication dosage algorithms in cases where these algorithms are not a feature offered by patient monitoring systems.
Data transmitted from a patient monitoring system may be analyzed substantially simultaneously with the transmission thereof to the central data processing system to identify emergency medical conditions requiring immediate medical attention. For identified emergency medical conditions, treatment information and altered self-monitoring instructions and/or prompts may be automatically communicated to the respective patient monitoring system.
Identified patient medical conditions for each respective patient are displayed in selectable, prioritized order according to medical severity via one or more remotely located client machines (hereinafter “clients”) in communication with a central data processing system. In response to a user (e.g., a case manager, physician, nurse) selecting an identified medical condition for a respective patient, treatment options for treating the medical condition may be displayed on the client.
A user may communicate treatment information to a respective patient via a variety of methods including, but not limited to, wireless, satellite, telephone, AVM, e-mail, or facsimile transmission. In addition, the present invention allows a user to communicate treatment information directly from a client to a respective patient monitoring system or within a central data processing system. A user may modify a medicine dosage algorithm stored within a respective patient monitoring system or within a central data processing system. In addition to modifying dosage algorithms, a user may modify medicine doses and fixed or contingent self-monitoring schedules for a patient. The present invention also tracks each identified medical condition for each patient from identification to resolution. The present invention tracks whether a user has communicated treatment information to a patient regarding an identified medical condition. In addition, the present in
Allen, III Lyle M.
Cummings Sandra E.
Surwit Richard S.
Healthware Corporation
Myers Bigel & Sibley & Sajovec
Winakur Eric F.
LandOfFree
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