Medical support system

• US 6,157,914 A
• Filed: 09/16/1996
• Issued: 12/05/2000
• Est. Priority Date: 02/21/1992
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba (Toshiba Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba (Toshiba Corporation)
• Inventors: Seto, Hiromitsu, Nishihara, Eitaro, Fukushima, Yuki, Nematbakhsh, Mohammad Ali
• Primary Examiner(s): Poinvil, Frantzy
• Application Number:
  US08/714,521
• Time in Patent Office: 1,541 Days
• Field of Search: 395/201-203, 395/601, 360/825.49, 360/825-52, 705/1-3, 707/1, 707/100, 707/200, 707/10, 707/201, 707/204, 283/54, 340/286.07, 340/286.08
• US Class Current: 705/3
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 10/60 for patient-specific data, e.g. for electronic patient records
• 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

Abstract

A medical support system intended to centrally manage medical information generated by more than one hospital and permit medical information interchange among hospitals with easy operations. The system includes a plurality of storage units for storing medical information about patients, an entry unit for entering identification information for identifying a specific patient, an identifying unit for identifying storage units that store medical information about the specific patient on the basis of the identification information from the entry unit, and an access unit for accessing the storage units identified by the identifying unit by storage units identification information to read the medical information about the specific patient.

Claims

1. A medical support system comprising:

plural local database systems located at different addresses, each of the plural local database systems comprising;

plural databases configured to store medical data of patients and retrieval data of the medical data in an individual manner, the retrieval data including addresses of the patients and IDs of the patients, and

a management system corresponding to the plural databases of the local database system and configured to store a relationship between the addresses of the patients and system IDs of said plural local database systems,

wherein one of the databases of the local database system is configured to determine, upon receiving a request for retrieving medical data of a patient, the request including the retrieval data of the patient, whether or not the medical data of the patient is stored in the one database based on the ID of the patient and is configured to transfer the request to the corresponding management system when the medical data is not stored in the one database, and

wherein the corresponding management system is configured to determine, upon receiving the request from the one database, whether or not the medical data is stored in any of the plural databases in the local database system based on the ID of the patient and is configured to transfer the request to another management system of another local database system based on the address of the patient when the medical data is not stored in any of the plural databases in the local database system.

2. The medical support system according to claim 1, wherein the corresponding management system is configured to determine, when data registration is requested, whether or not the patient resides in a jurisdiction area corresponding to the management system based on the address of the patient, is configured to register the medical data with the retrieval data in the management system when the patient resides in the jurisdiction area, and is configured to transfer the medical data and the retrieval data to the other management system of the other local database system when the patient does not reside in the jurisdiction area corresponding to the management system.

3. The medical support system according to claim 1, wherein each of said plural databases is located in a different hospital and is connected to the corresponding management system via a network.

4. The medical support system according to claim 1, wherein the one database of the plural databases is configured to retrieve the medical data when the medical data is stored in the one database, and the corresponding management system receiving the request is configured to retrieve the medical data from the one database when the medical data is stored in the one database.

5. The medical support system according to claim 1, wherein each of the plural local database systems further comprises:

a terminal configured to input the retrieval data to the corresponding management system.

6. A management system for a medical support system, comprising:

a memory including a first field for storing locations within a jurisdiction area of the management system, a second field for storing locations of other management systems, and a third field for storing system IDs of the other management systems, each of the locations in the second field being associated with a corresponding one of the system IDs in the third field; and

a processor configured to determine whether a patient resides within the jurisdiction area of the management system, upon receiving from a database within the jurisdiction area of the management system a request including residence information of the patient, by comparing the residence information of the patient with the locations stored in the first field, configured to identify another management system corresponding to one of the system IDs in the third field associated with one of the locations in the second field that matches the residence information of the patient when the patient resides outside the jurisdiction area of the management system, and configured to transfer the request to the other management system when the patient resides outside the jurisdiction area of the management system.

7. The management system according to claim 6, wherein the processor is further configured to register, when data registration is requested, medical data of the patient with retrieval data of the patient when the patient resides in the jurisdiction area of the management system, and is configured to transfer the medical data and the retrieval data to the other management system when the patient does not reside in the jurisdiction area of the management system.

8. The management system according to claim 6, wherein each of the databases corresponding to the management system is located in a different hospital and is connected to the management system via a network.

9. The management system according to claim 6, wherein the residence data and the locations stored in the first and second fields identify municipalities.

10. The management system according to claim 6, further comprising:

a terminal configured to input the retrieval data to the processor.

11. A method for managing a medical support system including plural local database systems located at different addresses, each of the plural local database systems including plural databases and a corresponding management system, said method comprising the steps of:

storing in the plural databases medical data of patients and retrieval data of the medical data in an individual manner, the retrieval data including addresses of the patients and IDs of the patients;

storing in the management system a relationship between the addresses of the patients and system IDs of said plural local database systems;

determining with one of the plural databases, upon receiving at the one database a request for retrieving medical data of a patient, the request including the retrieval data of the patient, whether or not the medical data of the patient is stored in the one database based on the ID of the patient;

transferring the request from the one database to the corresponding management system when the medical data is not stored in the one database;

determining with the corresponding management system, upon receiving the request from the one database, whether or not the medical data is stored in any of the plural databases of the local database system based on the ID of the patient; and

transferring the request to another management system of another local database system based on the address of the patient when the medical data is not stored in any of the plural databases in the local database system.

12. The method according to claim 11, further comprising the steps of:

determining, when data registration is requested, whether or not the patient resides in a jurisdiction area corresponding to the management system based on the address of the patient;

registering the medical data with the retrieval data in the management system when the patient resides in the jurisdiction area; and

transferring the medical data and the retrieval data to the other management system of the other local database system when the patient does not reside in the jurisdiction area of the management system.

13. The method according to claim 11, wherein each of said plural databases is located in a different hospital and is connected to the corresponding management system via a network.

14. The method according to claim 11, further comprising the step of:

retrieving with the one database of the plural databases the medical data when the medical data is stored in the one database; and

retrieving with the corresponding management system the medical data from the one database when the medical data is stored in the one database.

15. The method according to claim 11, wherein each of the plural local database systems further comprises a terminal and the method further comprises the step of:

inputting the retrieval data to the corresponding management system with the corresponding terminal.