Examination management device

• US 20050246202A1
• Filed: 12/25/2001
• Published: 11/03/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 12/22/2000
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: ARKRAY, Inc
• Original Assignee: ARKRAY, Inc
• Inventors: Hyoudou, Hiroshi, Wada, Atsushi
• Application Number:
  US10/451,621
• Publication Number:
  US 20050246202A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/3
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 10/40 for data related to laboratory analysis, e.g. patient specimen analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 10/60 for patient-specific data, e.g. for electronic patient records
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 50/20 for computer-aided diagnosis, e.g. based on medical expert systems

Abstract

When a medical institution outsources an examination to an external examination institution, a transport identification number generated by a number generating section (16) of the medical institution'"'"'s data management system (1) is printed out on a barcode label and affixed to a specimen container. The transport identification number is sent along with examination instruction information to a database server (3), and based on the transport identification number read from the barcode label affixed to the specimen container sent by the medical institution, a data management system (2) of the external examination institution obtains examination instruction information from the database server (3) and examinations are performed. The examination results are stored on the database server (3) along with the transport identification number. Based on the transport identification number, the data management system (1) of the medical institution obtains the examination results from the database server (3).

Claims

1. An examination management device comprising:

a patient data storage section that stores personal medical data for each patient in association with a unique individual identifier given to each patient;

a control section that performs different processing in response to whether an examination should be conducted within the medical institution or whether it should be outsourced to an external examination institution;

an identifier issuing section that issues a transport identifier; and

an identifier storage section that stores the issued transport identifier in association with the individual identifier of the patient;

wherein the control section;

outputs an examination instruction, including the individual identifier, for the use of the examination device inside the medical institution when the examination is one that should be conducted within the medical institution; and

when the examination is one that should be outsourced to an external examination institution, causes the identifier issuing section to issue a transport identifier to be appended to a specimen, causes the identifier storage section to store the issued transport identifier in association with the individual identifier of the patient from who the specimen was collected, and outputs an examination instruction for external examination institution.

2. The examination management device according to claim 1,

wherein the examination management device is connected to the examination device inside the medical institution via a communications means,

the examination management device further comprising a communications section that, via the communications means, sends the examination instruction to the examination device, and receives from the examination device the examination result of each patient in association with the transport identifier,

wherein the control section extracts from the identifier storage section the individual identifier corresponding to the transport identifier associated with the received examination result, and causes the patient data storage section to store the examination result in association with the extracted individual identifier.

3. The examination management device according to claim 1,

wherein the identifier issuing section issues, as the transport identifier, an identifier made of random numerals, characters, or symbols, or combinations of these.

4. The examination management device according to claim 1,

wherein the identifier issuing section issues, as the transport identifier, an identifier that includes the individual identifier of the patient from whom the specimen has been collected.

5. An examination management system comprising the examination management device according to any of the claims 1 to 4, and an examination data storage device that can be accessed by both the examination management device and the examination device of the external examination institution,

wherein the examination management device causes the examination instruction including the transport identifier to be sent to and stored at the examination data storage device,

wherein the examination device of the external examination institution obtains from the examination data storage device the examination instruction information corresponding to the transport identifier appended to the specimen, performs an examination based on the obtained examination instruction information, and causes the result to be stored in the examination information storage device in association with the transport identifier, and

wherein the examination management device obtains from the examination information storage device the examination result based on the transport identifier.

6. The examination management system according to claim 5, wherein the examination information storage device is a device outside the examination device.

7. The examination management system according to claim 5, wherein the examination device of the external examination institution includes the examination information storage device as an internal device.

8. An examination management system comprising the examination management device according to claim 4, and an examination data storage device that can be accessed by both the examination management device and the examination device of the external examination institution,

wherein the examination management device causes the examination instruction including the transport identifier to be sent to and stored at the examination information storage device,

wherein the examination device of the external examination institution obtains from the examination data storage device the examination instruction information corresponding to the transport identifier appended to the specimen, performs an examination based on the obtained examination instruction information, and causes the result to be stored in the examination information storage device in association with the transport identifier, and

wherein the examination management device obtains from the examination information storage device the examination result based on the individual identifier of each patient.