System, method, database server and record medium for at-home health support

• US 20020013520A1
• Filed: 07/16/2001
• Published: 01/31/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 07/17/2000
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: NEC Corporation
• Original Assignee: NEC Corporation
• Inventors: Okamoto, Katsuro
• Application Number:
  US09/906,543
• Publication Number:
  US 20020013520A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 600/300
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 10/20 for electronic clinical trials or questionnaires
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/67 for remote operation

Abstract

A health care database of an at-home health support system operated by a municipality for residents of the municipality is constructed in a server of a company that is connected to the Internet, and the municipality commissions the company to manage the health care database, thereby cost for the at-home health support system is reduced. Vital data inputted by a resident are transmitted from a resident'"'"'s health care terminal unit to the server via the Internet and are registered in the health care database. The municipality using a municipality'"'"'s terminal unit refers to the vital data in the health care database via the Internet, makes a diagnosis/advice for the vital data, and registers the diagnosis/advice in the health care database via the Internet. When the diagnosis/advice can not be made by the municipality, commission information is sent to a terminal unit of an outside medical institution via the Internet, and the outside medical institution makes the diagnosis/advice and registers the diagnosis/advice in the health care database via the Internet. Thereafter, the resident using the resident'"'"'s health care terminal unit makes access to the server via the Internet and refers to the diagnosis/advice which has been registered in the health care database. Database management cost calculated by the server and diagnosis cost calculated by the outside medical institution'"'"'s terminal unit are charged to the municipality via the Internet.

Claims

1. An at-home health support system in which a health care database for residents of a municipality is constructed in a server of a company that is connected to the Internet and the municipality commissions the company to manage the health care database, comprising:

vital information registration means which are provided to the residents for sending vital data and/or medical questionnaire data of the resident to the server via the Internet and thereby registering the data of the resident in the health care database of the server;

a database reference means which is provided to the municipality for making access to the server via the Internet and thereby referring to the vital data and/or medical questionnaire data of the residents which have been registered in the health care database of the server;

a first diagnosis/advice registration means which is provided to the municipality for sending a diagnosis and/or advice made by the municipality for the vital data and/or medical questionnaire data of a resident to the server via the Internet and thereby registering the diagnosis/advice for the resident in the health care database of the server;

a diagnosis/advice commissioning means which is provided to the municipality for making access to a terminal unit of an outside medical institution or health service company via the Internet and thereby commissioning the outside medical institution or health service company to make a diagnosis and/or advice for the vital data and/or medical questionnaire data of a resident when the diagnosis/advice for the resident can not be made by the municipality;

a second diagnosis/advice registration means which is provided to the outside medical institution or health service company for sending a diagnosis and/or advice made by the outside medical institution or health service company under the commission from the municipality for the vital data and/or medical questionnaire data of the resident to the server via the Internet and thereby registering the diagnosis/advice for the resident in the health care database of the server; and

diagnosis/advice reference means which are provided to each resident for making access to the server via the Internet and thereby referring to the diagnosis/advice which has been registered in the health care database of the server.

2. An at-home health support system as claimed in claim 1, further comprising:

a management cost calculation charging means which is provided to the server for calculating management cost of the health care database and charging the municipality for the management cost via the Internet; and

a diagnosis cost calculation charging means which is provided to the outside medical institution or health service company for calculating diagnosis cost for the diagnoses/advice made by the outside medical institution or health service company under the commission from the municipality and charging the municipality for the diagnosis cost via the Internet.

3. An at-home health support system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the server includes a user verification means for checking whether or not each user making access to the server via the Internet is a registered user.

4. An at-home health support system as claimed in claim 1, further comprising second diagnosis/advice reference means which are provided to registered specific users located outside the municipality for making access to the server via the Internet and thereby letting the specific user refer to the diagnosis/advice which has been registered in the health care database of the server for a resident related to the specific user.

5. An at-home health support system as claimed in claim 4, wherein the specific users include relatives of residents of the municipality.

6. An at-home health support system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the company to which the municipality commissions the management of the health care database is an ISP (Internet Service Provider).

7. An at-home health support system in which a health care database for residents of a municipality is constructed in a server of a company that is connected to the Internet and the municipality commissions the company to manage the health care database, comprising:

the server;

resident'"'"'s health care terminal units which are provided to residents of the municipality for making access to the Internet;

a municipality'"'"'s terminal unit which is provided to the municipality for making access to the Internet; and

a medical institution/ health service company'"'"'s terminal unit which is provided to an outside medical institution or health service company for making access to the Internet, wherein;

the resident'"'"'s health care terminal unit includes;

a vital information input transmission means for letting a resident input his/her vital data and/or medical questionnaire data and transmitting the data to the server via the Internet together with a user ID and a password so that the data of the resident will be registered in the health care database of the server; and

a result reference means for making access to the server via the Internet and thereby referring to a diagnosis/advice which has been made for the vital data and/or medical questionnaire data and registered in the health care database of the server, and

the municipality'"'"'s terminal unit includes;

a database reference means for making access to the server via the Internet and thereby referring to the vital data and/or medical questionnaire data of the residents which have been registered in the health care database of the server;

a first diagnosis/advice input transmission means for letting the municipality input a diagnosis and/or advice for the vital data and/or medical questionnaire data of a resident and transmitting the diagnosis/advice to the server via the Internet so that the diagnosis/advice for the resident will be registered in the health care database of the server; and

a commission information generation transmission means for generating commission information when the diagnosis/advice for a resident is commissioned to an outside medical institution or health service company and transmitting the commission information to a terminal unit of the outside medical institution or health service company via the Internet, and

the server includes;

a user information database in which resident information of each resident such as name, user ID, password, date of birth and sex and password information concerning the correspondence between each password and data/database that can be referred to by use of the password are registered and stored;

a vital information database in which the vital data, medical questionnaire data, etc. of each resident are registered and stored;

an information provision database in which the diagnosis, advice, etc. for each resident are registered and stored;

a user information registration verification means for registering user information such as the resident information and the password information in the user information database and checking whether or not each user making access to the server via the Internet is a registered user by use of the user information registered in the user information database;

a vital information registration means for registering the vital data and/or medical questionnaire data supplied from the resident'"'"'s health care terminal units in the vital information database with regard to each resident; and

a diagnosis/advice registration means for registering the diagnosis/advice supplied from the municipality'"'"'s terminal unit or the medical institution/health service company'"'"'s terminal unit in the information provision database with regard to each resident, and

the medical institution/health service company'"'"'s terminal unit includes;

a database reference means for making access to the server via the Internet and thereby referring to the vital data and/or medical questionnaire data of the residents which have been registered in the health care database of the server; and

a second diagnosis/advice input transmission means for letting the outside medical institution or health service company input a diagnosis and/or advice for the vital data and/or medical questionnaire data of a resident and transmitting the diagnosis/advice to the server via the Internet so that the diagnosis/advice for the resident will be registered in the health care database of the server.

8. An at-home health support system as claimed in claim 7, wherein:

the server further includes a management cost calculation charging means for calculating management cost of the health care database and charging the municipality for the management cost by sending a bill to the municipality'"'"'s terminal unit via the Internet, and the medical institution/health service company'"'"'s terminal unit further includes a diagnosis cost calculation charging means for calculating diagnosis cost for the diagnoses/advice made by the outside medical institution or health service company under the commission from the municipality and charging the municipality for the diagnosis cost by sending a bill to the municipality'"'"'s terminal unit via the Internet.

9. An at-home health support system as claimed in claim 7, further comprising specific user'"'"'s terminal units which are provided to registered specific users located outside the municipality for making access to the server via the Internet and thereby letting the specific user refer to the diagnosis/advice which has been registered in the health care database of the server with respect to a resident related to the specific user.

10. An at-home health support system as claimed in claim 9, wherein the specific users include relatives of residents of the municipality.

11. An at-home health support system as claimed in claim 9, wherein the user information registration verification means of the server also registers information concerning the correspondence between user IDs of the residents and passwords of the registered specific users in the user information database so that each registered specific user using a password will be allowed to refer to data of one or more residents having user IDs corresponding to the password.

12. An at-home health support system as claimed in claim 7, wherein:

the server further includes a health-related information database which preliminarily stores a variety of prepared contents concerning diet regimens, exercise regimens, rehabilitation programs, etc., and

when the diagnosis/advice is transmitted by the first diagnosis/advice input transmission means of the municipality'"'"'s terminal unit or the second diagnosis/advice input transmission means of the medical institution/health service company'"'"'s terminal unit to the server, health-related information related to the diagnosis/advice is obtained from the health-related information database and the health-related information is transmitted to the server together with the diagnosis/advice, and

the diagnosis/advice registration means of the server registers the health-related information in the information provision database together with the diagnosis/advice, and

the result reference means of the resident'"'"'s health care terminal unit refers to the health-related information together with the diagnosis/advice.

13. An at-home health support system as claimed in claim 7, wherein the company to which the municipality commissions the management of the health care database is an ISP (Internet Service Provider).

14. A health care database server of a system including a municipality'"'"'s terminal unit connected to the Internet, resident'"'"'s health care terminal units connected to the Internet, a medical institution/ health service company'"'"'s terminal unit connected to the Internet, and the health care database server connected to the Internet and owned by a company to which the municipality commissions the management of the health care database server, comprising:

a user information database in which resident information of each resident of the municipality such as name, user ID, password, date of birth and sex and password information concerning the correspondence between each password and data/database that can be referred to by use of the password are registered and stored;

a vital information database in which vital data, medical questionnaire data, etc. of each resident which are sent from the resident'"'"'s health care terminal units are registered and stored;

an information provision database in which diagnosis, advice, etc. for each resident which are sent from the municipality'"'"'s terminal unit or the medical institution/health service company'"'"'s terminal unit are registered and stored;

a user information registration verification means for registering user information such as the resident information and the password information in the user information database, and checking whether or not each user making access to the health care database server via the Internet is a registered user by use of the user information registered in the user information database when access from the municipality'"'"'s terminal unit, the resident'"'"'s health care terminal unit or the medical institution/health service company'"'"'s terminal unit occurred;

a vital information registration means for registering the vital data and/or medical questionnaire data supplied from the resident'"'"'s health care terminal units via the Internet in the vital information database with regard to each resident so as to be referred to by the municipality'"'"'s terminal unit or the medical institution/health service company'"'"'s terminal unit; and

a diagnosis/advice registration means for registering the diagnosis/advice supplied from the municipality'"'"'s terminal unit or the medical institution/health service company'"'"'s terminal unit via the Internet in the information provision database with regard to each resident so as to be referred to by the resident'"'"'s health care terminal unit.

15. A health care database server as claimed in claim 14, further comprising a management cost calculation charging means for calculating management cost of the health care database server and charging the municipality for the management cost by sending a bill to the municipality'"'"'s terminal unit via the Internet.

16. An at-home health support method in which a health care database for residents of a municipality is constructed in a server of a company that is connected to the Internet and the municipality commissions the company to manage the health care database, comprising the steps of:

a vital information registration step in which a resident sends his/her vital data and/or medical questionnaire data to the server via the Internet by use of a resident'"'"'s health care terminal unit and thereby the data of the resident is registered in the health care database of the server;

a database reference step in which the municipality makes access to the server via the Internet by use of a municipality'"'"'s terminal unit and thereby refers to the vital data and/or medical questionnaire data of the resident which have been registered in the health care database of the server;

a first diagnosis/advice registration step in which the municipality makes a diagnosis and/or advice for the vital data and/or medical questionnaire data of the resident if possible and sends the diagnosis/advice from the municipality'"'"'s terminal unit to the server via the Internet and thereby the diagnosis/advice for the resident is registered in the health care database of the server;

a diagnosis/advice commissioning step in which the municipality makes access to a medical institution/health service company'"'"'s terminal unit of an outside medical institution or health service company via the Internet by use of the municipality'"'"'s terminal unit and thereby commissions the outside medical institution or health service company to make a diagnosis and/or advice for the vital data and/or medical questionnaire data of the resident if the diagnosis/advice for the resident should be commissioned to the outside medical institution or health service company;

a second diagnosis/advice registration step in which the outside medical institution or health service company makes a diagnosis and/or advice for the vital data and/or medical questionnaire data of the resident under the commission from the municipality and sends the diagnosis/advice from the medical institution/health service company'"'"'s terminal unit to the server via the Internet and thereby the diagnosis/advice for the resident is registered in the health care database of the server; and

a diagnosis/advice reference step in which the resident makes access to the server via the Internet by use of the resident'"'"'s health care terminal unit and thereby refers to the diagnosis/advice which has been registered in the health care database of the server.

17. An at-home health support method as claimed in claim 16, further comprising:

a management cost calculation charging step in which management cost of the health care database is calculated by the server and the management cost is charged to the municipality by sending a bill to the municipality'"'"'s terminal unit via the Internet; and

a diagnosis cost calculation charging step in which diagnosis cost for the diagnoses/advice made by the outside medical institution or health service company under the commission from the municipality is calculated by the medical institution/health service company'"'"'s terminal unit and the diagnosis cost is charged to the municipality by sending a bill to the municipality'"'"'s terminal unit via the Internet.

18. An at-home health support method as claimed in claim 16, wherein the outside medical institution or health service company which received the commission from the municipality in the diagnosis/advice commissioning step makes access to the server via the Internet by use of the medical institution/health service company'"'"'s terminal unit and thereby refers to the vital data and/or medical questionnaire data of the resident which have been registered in the health care database of the server.

19. An at-home health support method as claimed in claim 16, further comprising a user verification step in which the authenticity of a user making access to the server via the Internet as a registered user is checked.

20. An at-home health support method as claimed in claim 16, further comprising a second diagnosis/advice reference step in which a registered specific user located outside the municipality makes access to the server via the Internet by use of a specific user'"'"'s terminal unit and thereby refers to the diagnosis/advice which has been registered in the health care database of the server for a resident related to the specific user.

21. An at-home health support method as claimed in claim 20, wherein the specific users include relatives of residents of the municipality.

22. An at-home health support system as claimed in claim 16, wherein the company to which the municipality commissions the management of the health care database is an ISP (Internet Service Provider).

23. A computer-readable record medium storing a program for instructing a computer etc. to operate as a health care database server of a system including a municipality'"'"'s terminal unit connected to the Internet, resident'"'"'s health care terminal units connected to the Internet, a medical institution/health service company'"'"'s terminal unit connected to the Internet, and the health care database server connected to the Internet and owned by a company to which the municipality commissions the management of the health care database server, wherein the health care database server implemented by the computer etc. and the program comprises:

a user information database in which resident information of each resident of the municipality such as name, user ID, password, date of birth and sex and password information concerning the correspondence between each password and data/database that can be referred to by use of the password are registered and stored;

a vital information database in which vital data, medical questionnaire data, etc. of each resident which are sent from the resident'"'"'s health care terminal units are registered and stored;

an information provision database in which diagnosis, advice, etc. for each resident which are sent from the municipality'"'"'s terminal unit or the medical institution/health service company'"'"'s terminal unit are registered and stored;

a user information registration verification means for registering user information such as the resident information and the password information in the user information database, and checking whether or not each user making access to the health care database server via the Internet is a registered user by use of the user information registered in the user information database when access from the municipality'"'"'s terminal unit, the resident'"'"'s health care terminal unit or the medical institution/health service company'"'"'s terminal unit occurred;

a vital information registration means for registering the vital data and/or medical questionnaire data supplied from the resident'"'"'s health care terminal units via the Internet in the vital information database with regard to each resident so as to be referred to by the municipality'"'"'s terminal unit or the medical institution/health service company'"'"'s terminal unit; and

a diagnosis/advice registration means for registering the diagnosis/advice supplied from the municipality'"'"'s terminal unit or the medical institution/health service company'"'"'s terminal unit via the Internet in the information provision database with regard to each resident so as to be referred to by the resident'"'"'s health care terminal unit.

24. A computer-readable record medium as claimed in claim 23, wherein the health care database server implemented by the computer etc. and the program further comprises a management cost calculation charging means for calculating management cost of the health care database server and charging the municipality for the management cost by sending a bill to the municipality'"'"'s terminal unit via the Internet.