Interactive unified workstation for benchmarking and care planning
First Claim
1. A method for facilitating evaluation of a practitioner'"'"'s practice from a business view point against industry standards, the method comprising the steps of:
- providing a practice benchmarking knowledge database comprising contemporary performance data of industry standard practices;
accessing said practice benchmarking knowledge base via computer software instructions so as to compare performance metrics of the practitioner'"'"'s practice against said industry standard practices;
analyzing, via said computer software instructions, the difference, if any, between each of said performance metrics for said practitioner'"'"'s practice and said industry standard practices; and
providing the results of said step of analyzing to the practitioner, and when said results are unacceptable to said practitioner, identifying, with the aid of said computer software instructions, one or more proposed corrective actions to more closely align the practitioner'"'"'s practice with said industry standard practices.
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Accused Products
Abstract
An interactive, unified workstation is described that unifies in a single system multitude of functions pertaining to a practitioners practice that would otherwise require disjointed, more expensive, and less efficient individual workstations dedicated to a specific, limited task or a sub-set of tasks. The invention is directed towards benchmarking for a practitioner'"'"'s business practice, and for clinical aspects of treatment planning; and integrating overall patient care planning functions. The unified workstation further facilitates access to archived database resources and facilitates both knowledge base services to practitioners and also hybrid treatment planning, wherein different types of appliance systems (fixed, such as brackets and wires, or removable, such as aligning shells) may be used during the course of treatment.
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Citations
62 Claims
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1. A method for facilitating evaluation of a practitioner'"'"'s practice from a business view point against industry standards, the method comprising the steps of:
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providing a practice benchmarking knowledge database comprising contemporary performance data of industry standard practices;
accessing said practice benchmarking knowledge base via computer software instructions so as to compare performance metrics of the practitioner'"'"'s practice against said industry standard practices;
analyzing, via said computer software instructions, the difference, if any, between each of said performance metrics for said practitioner'"'"'s practice and said industry standard practices; and
providing the results of said step of analyzing to the practitioner, and when said results are unacceptable to said practitioner, identifying, with the aid of said computer software instructions, one or more proposed corrective actions to more closely align the practitioner'"'"'s practice with said industry standard practices. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5)
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6. A method for facilitating care of a patient, the method comprising the steps of:
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providing a clinical benchmarking knowledge database comprising clinical treatment history of individual patients;
obtaining a diagnosis of a patient;
obtaining an identification of parameters deemed important concerning said patient;
finding a match in said clinical benchmarking knowledge database by comparing said diagnosis and said parameters for said patient with entries in said clinical benchmarking knowledge database; and
creating an initial treatment plan for the patient with the aid of the match from said clinical benchmarking knowledge database. - View Dependent Claims (7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14)
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15. A method of facilitating patient care, comprising the steps of:
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furnishing information regarding ongoing treatment of a patient to a workstation, said workstation having access to a clinical benchmarking knowledge database comprising clinical treatment histories and characteristics of a plurality of patients;
identifying in the clinical benchmarking database a reference patient and associated treatment plan that matches the patient;
comparing the progress of treatment of the patient with the progress of the reference patient at a comparable elapsed time in treatment, and providing the results of said comparison to the practitioner. - View Dependent Claims (16, 17, 18, 19, 20)
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21. A method for providing a service for facilitating care of a patient, the method comprising the steps of:
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a) providing a clinical benchmarking knowledge database comprising clinical treatment history of a plurality of individual patients, b) receiving information regarding the diagnosis of said patient and parameters deemed important concerning said patient from a practitioner;
c) finding one or more substantial matches from said clinical benchmarking knowledge database by comparing said diagnosis information and said parameters for said patient with entries in said clinical benchmarking knowledge database; and
d) delivering treatment recommendations for said matches to said practitioner for said patient. - View Dependent Claims (22, 24, 25, 26, 27)
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23. The method of step 22, further comprising the step of keeping a record of the treatment recommendations and the charge assessed to the practitioner.
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28. A unified workstation for orthodontic care and treatment of a patient, comprising
a central processing unit and a memory storing a clinical benchmarking knowledge database, software comprising computerized modeling and simulation tools for operation on a model of the dentition of the patient, and interfaces for accessing resources from appliance manufacturers or other sources, and wherein the workstation further comprises software for: -
a) developing an initial orthodontic treatment plan tailored to satisfy patient-specific needs, b) identifying a reference patient in the clinical benchmarking knowledge database that matches, at least approximately, the orthodontic condition of the patient; and
c) obtaining and using data comprising the condition of the patient during the course of treatment and thereby monitoring the progress of the patient in response to the treatmen, and comparing the monitored progress to an expected progress for the patient from the progress of the reference patient. - View Dependent Claims (29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34)
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35. A unified workstation system for aiding in facilitating care of an orthodontic patient, comprising:
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a general purpose computer system having a processor, a memory and a user interface;
said memory storing a clinical benchmarking knowledge database stored in said computer memory comprising clinical treatment history of individual reference patients, wherein said clinical treatment history comprises for each said reference patient (1) a treatment plan;
(2) three-dimensional data of (a) pre-treatment teeth geometry, and (b) repositioned teeth at at least one milestone of said treatment plan, and (3) a record of patient-specific characteristics;
said memory further storing a patient database comprising said three-dimensional digital information of the patient'"'"'s pre-treatment teeth geometry and a record containing patient-specific characteristics for said patient; and
a set of software instructions operating on said patient database and said clinical benchmarking knowledge database for identifying none, one, or more matches from said reference clinical treatment histories by comparing said patient'"'"'s three-dimensional teeth geometry with the three-dimensional teeth geometry of reference patients in the said clinical benchmarking knowledge database. - View Dependent Claims (36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44)
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45. A unified workstation system for facilitating care of an orthodontic patient, comprising:
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a general purpose computer system having a processor, memory and a user interface;
a database containing information for facilitating care of a patient stored in said memory and accessible through said user interface, said information comprising;
diagnosis information comprising (a) clinical examination records in the form of at least one of 2D images, 3D data, CAT scan, MRI, physical model, photographs, digital data from direct scanning of said patient or from scanning of said patient'"'"'s mold, ultra-sonic images, X-rays, etc;
(b) medical health history;
(c) dental health history; and
(c) radio graphic examination records;
therapeutics information comprising treatment and delivery plans information;
care enterprise information selected from the group of information consisting of a) care monitoring and care management information, including information on laboratories, manufacturers, and suppliers for orthodontic treatment apparatus;
b) information on the practitioner and said practitioner'"'"'s assistants; and
c) insurance coverage information for said patient;
communications records comprising at least one of the following;
communication between said practitioner and said patient, between said practitioner and one or more other practitioners, between said practitioner and one or more said laboratories, between said practitioner and one or more said manufacturers, between said practitioner and one or more said supplier; and
a set of software tools enabling said practitioner to access said database and use said database to facility the delivery and management of said care. - View Dependent Claims (46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62)
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Specification