Computerized medical diagnostic system including re-enter function and sensitivity factors
First Claim
1. In an automated medical advice system including a computer, and input and output devices, a method of re-entering a diagnosis of a patient'"'"'s medical problem, comprising the steps of:
- performing an initial diagnostic consultation with the patient, thereby collecting patient information;
identifying a situation wherein the patient is to consult the system again wherein an indicator associated with programmed re-enter criteria is set in the computer;
automatically instructing the patient to consult the system at a predetermined time in the future based upon the identified situation;
performing one or more additional diagnostic consultations with the patient, thereby collecting and storing additional patient information, wherein the execution path of the additional diagnostic consultation is responsive to the stored patient information and the indicator of satisified re-enter criteria; and
formulating a diagnosis from said collected patient information during a one of the diagnostic consultations.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A system and method for providing computerized, knowledge-based medical diagnostic and treatment advice. The medical advice is provided to the general public over a telephone network. Two new authoring languages, interactive voice response and speech recognition are used to enable expert and general practitioner knowledge to be encoded for access by the public. "Meta" functions for time-density analysis of a number of factors regarding the number of medical complaints per unit of time are an integral part of the system. A semantic discrepancy evaluator routine along with a mental status examination are used to detect the consciousness level of a user of the system. A re-enter feature monitors the user'"'"'s changing condition over time. A symptom severity analysis helps to respond to the changing conditions. System sensitivity factors may be changed at a global level or other levels to adjust the system advice as necessary.
821 Citations
25 Claims
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1. In an automated medical advice system including a computer, and input and output devices, a method of re-entering a diagnosis of a patient'"'"'s medical problem, comprising the steps of:
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performing an initial diagnostic consultation with the patient, thereby collecting patient information; identifying a situation wherein the patient is to consult the system again wherein an indicator associated with programmed re-enter criteria is set in the computer; automatically instructing the patient to consult the system at a predetermined time in the future based upon the identified situation; performing one or more additional diagnostic consultations with the patient, thereby collecting and storing additional patient information, wherein the execution path of the additional diagnostic consultation is responsive to the stored patient information and the indicator of satisified re-enter criteria; and formulating a diagnosis from said collected patient information during a one of the diagnostic consultations. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12)
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13. In an automated medical advice system including a computer, and input and output devices, a method of symptom severity analysis, comprising the steps of:
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performing a first diagnostic consultation with a patient for a problem by a diagnostic process, thereby collecting patient information; quantizing a severity of a symptom of the patient based upon the first consultation; identifying a situation wherein the patient is to consult the system again wherein, if a programmed re-enter criteria is satisified, an indicator associated with the programmed re-enter criteria is set in the computer; automatically instructing the patient to consult the system at a predetermined time in the future based upon the identified situation; performing a second diagnostic consultation with the patient for the problem by the diagnostic process; quantizing the severity of the symptom of the patient based upon the second consultation; analyzing changes in a level of severity and rate of change of severity over time based upon the quantized severities and providing instructions to the patient based on the analysis of changes in a level of severity and rate of change of severity over time. - View Dependent Claims (14, 15, 16, 17)
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18. In an automated medical advice system including a computer, input and output devices, and a set of medical algorithms, a method of modifying sensitivity so as to change the advice of the system, comprising the steps of:
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receiving through at least one of said input devices data indicative of physical symptoms of a patient; establishing a sensitivity factor representative of relative importance of a selective field of interest having a cost/benefit tradeoff recognized by a healthcare organization in at least one medical algorithm; changing a threshold value in at least one of the medical algorithms by use of the sensitivity factor, wherein the new threshold value affects a branching decision in the medical algorithm and wherein the medical algorithm uses physical symptoms of the patient to generate a diagnosis; communicating the diagnosis through the output device; and changing the sensitivity factor over time to affect the sensitivity of the system thereby improving the advice given by the system. - View Dependent Claims (19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24)
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25. In an automated medical advice system including a computer, and input and output devices, a method of re-entering a diagnosis of a patient'"'"'s medical problem, comprising the steps of:
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performing an initial diagnostic consultation with the patient, thereby collecting patient information; identifying a situation wherein the patient is to consult the system again, wherein, if a programmed re-enter criteria is satisfied, an indicator associated with the programmed re-enter criteria is set in the computer; automatically instructing the patient to consult the system at a predetermined time in the future based upon the identified situation; performing one or more additional diagnostic consultations in response to the indicator of satisfied re-enter criteria such that additional information collected from the patient is associated with one medical problem; and formulating a diagnosis from said collected patient information during a one of the diagnostic consultations.
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Specification