Communication system for information of medical doctor's questions to patients, terminal apparatus for medical doctor and terminal apparatus for patient

• US 20080172245A1
• Filed: 01/30/2002
• Published: 07/17/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 01/30/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: PHC Holdings Corporation
• Original Assignee: Panasonic Corporation (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Nomura, Hiroyoshi, Kanazawa, Kiyoshi, Imai, Hirohisa, Miyazaki, Jinsei, Nagamoto, Shunichi
• Granted Patent: US 7,603,282 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/2
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 10/20 for electronic clinical trials or questionnaires
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/67 for remote operation
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99945 Object-oriented database structure processing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99948 Application of database or data structure, e.g. distributed, multimedia, or image

Abstract

A communication system for information of medical doctor'"'"'s questions to patients includes a terminal apparatus for medical doctor, a terminal apparatus for patient, and a database server apparatus for storing question sets for medical doctor'"'"'s questions to patients, which are connected through a communication network. The terminal apparatus for patient generates question programs for making inquiries about medical doctor'"'"'s questions to patients in accordance with the question sets received from the database server apparatus, displays the questions for medical doctor'"'"'s questions to patients by execution of the generated question programs, enters answer data to the displayed questions, transmits the entered answer data to the database server apparatus, and stores the transmitted answer data in the database server apparatus. The terminal apparatus for medical doctor receives the stored answer data by accessing the database server apparatus, and displays the received answer data thereon.

Claims

1. A communication system for providing information of a medical doctor'"'"'s questions to patients, said communication system comprising a medical doctor terminal apparatus, a patient terminal apparatus, and a database server apparatus for storing question sets for the medical doctor'"'"'s questions to patients, said medical doctor terminal apparatus, said patient terminal apparatus and said database server apparatus are connected to each other through a communication network,

wherein said patient terminal apparatus comprises:

first interface means for establishing a network connection and data communication between the database server apparatus and said patient terminal apparatus via the communication network;

first receiving means for receiving at least one question set from said database server apparatus, each question set being dependent on a particular patient among a plurality of patients;

template storing means for storing template question programs which correspond to predetermined answer forms and are not dependent on a particular patient;

generating means for generating question programs which are dependent on a particular patient among a plurality of patients, by inserting sets received from said database server apparatus into the template question programs;

displaying means for displaying questions for the medical doctor'"'"'s questions to patients by executing the question programs generated by said generating means;

entering means for entering answer data to the displayed questions; and

transmitting means for transmitting the entered answer data to said database server apparatus, and storing the transmitted answer data in said database server apparatus; and

second interface means for terminating the network connection and data communication between the database server apparatus and said patient terminal apparatus;

wherein said medical doctor terminal apparatus comprises second receiving means for receiving the answer data stored in said database server apparatus by accessing said database server apparatus, and displaying the received answer data, and

wherein the patient dependent question programs are not transmitted through the communication network.

3. The system as claimed in claim 27, wherein the answer forms includes include at least one of:

(a) a first answer form for answering by selecting at least one among a plurality of selection sentences of answers as an answer to a question; and

(b) a second answer form for answering by using a numerical value as an answer to the question.

4. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein each of the question sets includes data indicative of an answer form, and a question sentence.

5. The system as claimed in claim 4, wherein each of the question sets further includes at least one selection sentence.

6. The system as claimed in claim 4, wherein each of the question sets further includes a goal answer entered by a medical doctor.

7. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein:

said patient terminal apparatus further comprises answer data storing means for storing entered past answer data; and

said displaying means displays past answer data stored in said answer data storing means in conjunction with a question.

8. The system as claimed in claim 3, wherein the second answer form includes at least one of:

(a) a third answer form for answering by directly entering a numerical value as an answer to the question; and

(b) a fourth answer form for answering by entering a numerical value indicative of an answer with either one of increasing and decreasing a numerical value starting at an initial value, as an answer to the question.

9. The system as claimed in claim 8, wherein:

said patient terminal apparatus further comprises answer data storing means for storing entered past answer data; and

the initial value of the numerical value is a numerical value indicative of a previous answer of the particular patient included in the past answer data stored in said answer data storing means.

10. The system as claimed in claim 5, wherein said generating means comprises changing means for changing a display layout of the at least one selection sentence according to at least one of a number of selection sentences and a length of each selection sentence.

11. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein said medical doctor terminal apparatus further comprises:

transmitting and storing means for entering a remedy policy for a patient, transmitting the entered remedy policy to said database server apparatus, and storing the transmitted remedy policy in said database server apparatus; and

third receiving means for receiving the stored remedy policy for the patient by accessing said database server apparatus, and displaying the received remedy policy.

12. The system as claimed in claim 11, wherein said medical doctor terminal apparatus further comprises link controlling means for controlling said third receiving means in accordance with a command from an operator so that said third receiving means receives the stored remedy policy for the patient by accessing said database server apparatus and displays the received remedy policy, when said second receiving means receives the answer data and displays the received answer data.

13. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein said database server apparatus comprises:

first storing means for storing information about each respective patient;

second storing means for storing questions for medical doctor'"'"'s questions for each respective question;

third storing means for storing information about linking between the respective patients and respective questions; and

fourth storing means for storing answer data from said patient terminal apparatus.

14. The system as claimed in claim 13, wherein said third storing means further stores a goal answer entered by a medical doctor, in addition to the information about linking between the respective patients and respective questions.

27. The system as claimed in claim 1,

wherein template storing means stores template question programs which correspond to predetermined answer forms and are not dependent on a particular patient, and

wherein the generating means generates question programs which are dependent on a particular patient among a plurality of patients, by inserting question sets received from said database server apparatus into the template question programs.

2. (canceled)

15. A patient terminal apparatus for use in a communication system for providing information of a medical doctor'"'"'s questions to patients, the communication system comprising a medical doctor terminal apparatus, said patient terminal apparatus, and a database server apparatus for storing question sets for the medical doctor'"'"'s questions to patients, said patient terminal apparatus, the medical doctor terminal apparatus and the database server apparatus being connected to each other through a communication network, said patient terminal apparatus comprising:

first interface means for establishing a network connection and data communication between the database server apparatus and said patient terminal apparatus via the communication network;

receiving means for receiving at least one question set from the database server apparatus, each question set being dependent on a particular patient among a plurality of patients;

template storing means for storing template question programs which correspond to predetermined answer forms and are not dependent on a particular patient;

generating means for generating question programs which are dependent on a particular patient among a plurality of patients by inserting question sets received from said database server apparatus into the template question programs;

displaying means for displaying questions for the medical doctor'"'"'s questions to patients by executing the question programs generated by said generating means;

entering means for entering answer data to the displayed questions; and

transmitting means for transmitting the entered answer data to the database server apparatus and storing the transmitted answer data in the database server apparatus; and

second interface means for terminating the network connection and data communication between the database server apparatus and said patient terminal apparatus,

wherein the patient dependent question programs are not transmitted through the communication network.

17. The patient terminal apparatus as claimed in claim 28, wherein the answer forms include at least one of:

(a) a first answer form for answering by selecting at least one among a plurality of selection sentences of answers as an answer to a question; and

(b) a second answer form for answering by using a numerical value as an answer to the question.

18. The patient terminal apparatus as claimed in claim 15, wherein each of the question sets includes data indicative of the answer form, and a question sentence.

19. The patient terminal apparatus as claimed in claim 18, wherein each of the question sets further includes at least one selection sentence.

20. The patient terminal apparatus as claimed in claim 18, wherein each of the question sets further includes a goal answer entered by a medical doctor.

21. The patient terminal apparatus as claimed in claim 15, further comprising answer data storing means for storing entered past answer data,

wherein said displaying means displays past answer data stored in said answer data storing means in conjunction with a question.

22. The patient terminal apparatus as claimed in claim 17, wherein the second answer form includes at least one of:

(a) a third answer form for answering by directly entering a numerical value as an answer to the question; and

(b) a fourth answer form for answering by entering a numerical value indicative of an answer with either one of increasing and decreasing a numerical value starting at an initial value as an answer to the question.

23. The patient terminal apparatus as claimed in claim 22, further comprising answer data storing means for storing entered past answer data,

wherein the initial value of the numerical value is a numerical value indicative of a previous answer of the particular patient included in the past answer data stored in said answer data storing means.

24. The patient terminal apparatus as claimed in claim 19, wherein said generating means comprises changing means for changing a display layout of the at least one selection sentence according to at least one of a number of selection sentences and a length of each selection sentence.

28. The patient terminal apparatus as claimed in claim 15,

wherein the template storing means stores template question programs which correspond to predetermined answer forms and are not dependent on a particular patient, and

wherein the generating means for generates question programs which are dependent on a particular patient among a plurality of patients, by inserting question sets received from said database server apparatus into the template question programs.

16. (canceled)

25. A medical doctor terminal apparatus for use in a communication system for providing information of a medical doctor'"'"'s questions to patients, said communication system comprising said medical doctor terminal apparatus, a patient terminal apparatus, and a database server apparatus for storing question sets for the medical doctor'"'"'s questions to patients, said medical doctor terminal apparatus, the patient terminal apparatus and the database server apparatus being connected to each other through a communication network, said medical doctor terminal apparatus comprising:

first interface means for establishing a network connection and data communication between the database server and said medical doctor terminal apparatus via the communication network;

first receiving means for receiving answer data stored in the database server apparatus by the patient terminal apparatus, by accessing the database server apparatus, and displaying the received answer data;

transmitting and storing means for entering a remedy policy for a patient, transmitting the entered remedy policy to the database server apparatus, and storing the transmitted remedy policy in the database server apparatus;

second receiving means for receiving the stored remedy policy which was entered previously for the patient, by accessing the database server apparatus, and displaying the received remedy policy which was entered previously;

second interface means for terminating the network connection and data communication between the database server apparatus and said medical doctor terminal apparatus;

display means for displaying a user interface that includes the received answer data for the patient, the user interface including at least one selection means being displayed within the user interface and configured for selecting at least one remedy policy corresponding to the received answer data; and

reviewing and entry means for reviewing the displayed answer data together with the displayed remedy policy which was entered previously for the patient based on a selection via the selection means, and additionally entering a new remedy policy for the patient based on the displayed answer data and the displayed remedy policy for the patient which was entered previously, whereby the doctor performs a medical examination for the patient via the communication system.

26. The medical doctor terminal apparatus as claimed in claim 25, further comprising link controlling means for controlling said second receiving means in accordance with a command from an operator so that said second receiving means receives the stored remedy policy for the patient by accessing the database server apparatus and displays the received remedy policy, when said first receiving means receives the answer data and displays the received answer data.