DISEASE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM AND METHOD INCLUDING QUESTION VERSION

• US 20080059232A1
• Filed: 10/30/2007
• Published: 03/06/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 03/13/1997
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Healthways SC, LLC (Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Clinical Decision Support, LLC (Tivity Health, Inc.)
• Inventors: Iliff, Edwin
• Granted Patent: US 8,060,378 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/2
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 10/20 for electronic clinical trials or questionnaires
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 10/60 for patient-specific data, e.g. for electronic patient records
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 15/00 ICT specially adapted for medical reports, e.g. generation or transmission thereof
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 20/10 relating to drugs or medications, e.g. for ensuring correct administration to patients
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/67 for remote operation
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 50/20 for computer-aided diagnosis, e.g. based on medical expert systems
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 50/30 for calculating health indices; for individual health risk assessment
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 70/20 relating to practices or guidelines
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 70/60 relating to pathologies
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 80/00 ICT specially adapted for facilitating communication between medical practitioners or patients, e.g. for collaborative diagnosis, therapy or health monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: Y02A 90/10 Information and communication technologies [ICT] supporting adaptation to climate change, e.g. for weather forecasting or climate simulation
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 128/92 Computer assisted medical diagnostics
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 128/925 Neural network

Abstract

A system and method for allowing a patient to access an automated process for managing a specified health problem called a disease. The system performs disease management in a fully automated manner, using periodic interactive dialogs with the patient to obtain health state measurements from the patient, to evaluate and assess the progress of the patient'"'"'s disease, to review and adjust therapy to optimal levels, and to give the patient medical advice for administering treatment and handling symptom flare-ups and acute episodes of the disease. The medical records are updated, the progression of the disease is stored and tracked, and the patient'"'"'s preferences for treatment are stored and then used to offer medical advice based on the current state of the disease. A prestored general disease trend curve is compared against a patient specific disease trend curve, and the system makes an automated response such as adjusting therapy.

Claims

1. A method of automated medical treatment for a patient comprising a question versions function, the method comprising:

retrieving one or more prestored question versions associated with a medical aspect of a patient, wherein the question versions convey different levels of the same question;

computing a question version index (QVI) for a user, wherein the QVI is used for selecting a question version from the retrieved question versions;

storing the QVI of the user to a data storage; and

outputting the selected question version to the user to communicate at a desired level.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the different levels of the same question comprise different degrees of sensitivity, linguistic selectivity, or language proficiency.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the degrees of sensitivity comprise different intonations of voice, commas, pauses, or different medical details to disclose to the user.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the QVI computation comprises a patient'"'"'s age or disease.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein the QVI computation includes considerations associated with degrees of linguistic selectivity comprising the user'"'"'s gender, language spoken, or what medical details can be disclosed.

6. The method of claim 2, wherein the QVI computation includes considerations associated with degrees of language proficiency comprising different levels of education, intelligence, disease understanding, medical expertise, or medical history of the user.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising communicating the selected question version to one of:

a patient or an agent of the patient and a healthcare provider or an agent of the healthcare provider.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein retrieving one or more prestored question versions includes retrieving a default question, wherein the default question is selected when none of the other retrieved question versions match the computed QVI.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein some of the retrieved question versions convey one of:

the same question using different words and the same question using the same words.

10. An automated medical treatment system comprising:

a disease management module (DMM) for automatically assessing the health of a patient and modifying therapy of the patient;

a question versions function in data communication with the DMM; and

a question version index (QVI) accessed by the question versions function, wherein the QVI is used to select a question version from one or more versions of the same question that is provided by the question versions function.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the DMM dynamically selects the QVI during a communication with a user.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the dynamic selection of the QVI is based on a user'"'"'s responses or requests.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the user comprises the patient or a healthcare provider.

14. The system of claim 10, wherein the question versions function provides a default question as one question version in the one or more question versions, wherein the default question is selected when the QVI does not match question versions other than the default question.

15. A question versions index in an disease management system comprising:

a set of question versions comprising at least a default question; and

a question version index (QVI) for selecting an appropriate question version based on a user'"'"'s sensitivity level, linguistic selectivity level, or education level.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the QVI is determined based on one or more of a user'"'"'s grammar knowledge, the user'"'"'s spoken language, how the user is related to a patient, what is currently known about the patient, what medical details can be disclosed to the user, or a language IQ test given as part of an initial health assessment.

17. The system of claim 15, wherein some of the question versions convey the same question using different words.

18. A computer usable medium having computer readable program code embodied therein for obtaining and monitoring a patient'"'"'s health data related to a disease, the computer readable code comprising instructions for:

storing a set of question versions; and

selecting a question version from the set of question versions based on a question version index (QVI), wherein the QVI is determined based on information about a user of the program.

19. The computer usable medium of claim 18, wherein the QVI determination comprises information obtained during run time.

20. The computer usable medium of claim 18, wherein the program user is a patient, patient'"'"'s agent, healthcare provider, or healthcare provider'"'"'s agent.

21. The computer usable medium of claim 20, wherein the patient is a human being in need of wellness care.

22. The computer usable medium of claim 18, wherein the set of question versions are written into a script.

23. The computer usable medium of claim 21, wherein the script comprises a default question in the set of question versions, wherein the default question is selected when the QVI has no other match with question versions in the set other than the default question.

24. A computerized question version method, comprising:

storing a plurality of groups of questions indicative of assessing a patient'"'"'s health, each group being related to a linguistic level of understanding;

identifying the linguistic level of understanding of a particular patient;

selecting one of the question groups based on the identified linguistic level; and

asking a question of the patient from the selected group.

25. The method of claim 24, wherein the method additionally comprises modifying a sensitivity/selectivity ratio based on the identified linguistic level.