TOOLS, SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR VISUAL INTERPRETATION OF VAST MEDICAL DATA

• US 20100305961A1
• Filed: 05/29/2009
• Published: 12/02/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 05/29/2009
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Michael S. Broder
• Original Assignee: Michael S. Broder
• Inventors: Broder, Michael S.
• Application Number:
  US12/474,611
• Publication Number:
  US 20100305961A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/2
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 11/206 Drawing of charts or graphs
• 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 40/63 for local operation

Abstract

A graphical representation incorporating discrete patient medical history into a single-view for evaluating patterns in the data. A graphical tool comprises a series of linear segments that represent a patient history or medical data, where the segments are oriented with a time axis to show start time, stop time, and duration. Using lines of extremely thin weight and placing each patient'"'"'s history immediately adjacent other patient'"'"'s history, hundreds or thousands of patient data can be represented by a single view. Statistical analysis can be performed on the data to yield further information on the medical data, which can be superimposed on the graphical display.

Claims

1. A tool for evaluating a large amount of medical data pertaining to numerous patients in a selected medical study, where a treatment of each patient is displayed graphically, the tool comprising:

a display medium for displaying a multi-axis graph, the display medium including an orthogonal axis system with a first axis corresponding to a treatment duration and a second axis corresponding to a number of patients;

a single view graphical representation displayed on the display medium comprising a series of line segments aligned with the time axis, each line segment corresponding to respective ones of the patient'"'"'s medical data with each patient'"'"'s medical data represented by a line segment;

the line segment having a length corresponding to a period of time that the corresponding patient'"'"'s medical data was obtained; and

the graphical representation depicting the medical data via said line segments for every patient in the study.

2. The tool for evaluating a large amount of medical data of claim 1 wherein the medical study comprises a study of a drug used by the patients.

3. The tool for evaluating a large amount of medical data of claim 2 wherein the medical study includes a study of secondary drugs on an effectiveness of the drug.

4. The tool for evaluating a large amount of medical data of claim 1 wherein each line segment is a single pixel wide.

5. The tool for evaluating a large amount of medical data of claim 1 wherein the display medium is a sheet upon which a graph is printed.

6. The tool for evaluating a large amount of medical data of claim 1 wherein the display medium is a monitor screen.

7. The tool for evaluating a large amount of medical data of claim 1 wherein the line segments have different colors to represent different factors to be studied.

8. The tool for evaluating a large amount of medical data of claim 2 wherein different drugs are assigned a different color line segment.

9. The tool for evaluating a large amount of medical data of claim 8 wherein different dosages are assigned a different shade of a same color for a particular drug.

10. The tool for evaluating a large amount of medical data of claim 1 wherein statistical data on a population of patients are overlayed over the graphical representation.

11. A method for evaluating a large amount of medical data from a plurality of patients using a single image comprising the steps of”

collecting medical data on a plurality of patients and storing the collected medical data in a selected storage device;

perform statistical analysis on the stored medical data, where each patient'"'"'s medical data includes a start time, an end time, and a duration;

causing each patient'"'"'s medical data to be displayed on a single-view graph using a line segment having a length corresponding to the duration of the patient'"'"'s medical data;

arranging each line segment in the graph so that every patient'"'"'s medical data is displayed graphically by line segments unique to the respective patients; and

evaluating the graph to determine patterns from among the patient data.

12. The method for evaluating a large amount of medical data of claim 11 wherein the medical data relates to a study of the patient'"'"'s reaction to a selected drug.

13. The method for evaluating a large amount of medical data of claim 11 further comprising displaying the graph using different colors to represent different medical factors.

14. The method for evaluating a large amount of medical data of claim 11 wherein data is displayed on a printed sheet.

15. The method for evaluating a large amount of medical data of claim 12 wherein a patient'"'"'s dosage of the drug is reflected in by a particular characteristic of an associated unique line segment.

16. The method for evaluating a large amount of medical data of claim 12 wherein the graph is used to track more than one drug.

17. The method for evaluating a large amount of medical data of claim 16 further comprising using multiple colors for the line segments to represent different drugs.

18. The method for evaluating a large amount of medical data of claim 16 further comprising indicating on the graph where a patient has switched from one drug to another drug.

19. The method for evaluating a large amount of medical data of claim 11 further comprising overlaying statistical data over the graph to provide additional information regarding the patient history.