Computerized medical diagnostic system utilizing list-based processing
First Claim
1. A method of performing an automated diagnostic session with a patient, comprising:
- storing in a computer a plurality of disease scripts, each script being associated with a disease;
storing medical information specific to the patient in a patient medical history;
selecting a set of disease scripts to be considered for diagnosis based on the patient medical history;
executing a disease script associated with a selected one of the set of disease scripts;
collecting additional medical information from the execution of the disease script; and
automatically changing the set of disease scripts to be further considered for diagnosis based on the patient medical history and the collected medical information.
2 Assignments
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Accused Products
Abstract
A system and method for providing computerized, knowledge-based medical diagnostic advice. The medical advice is provided to the general public over a network, such as a telephone network with the use of a telephone or the Internet with the use of an Internet access device. Alternatively, the medical advice can be provided to a patient in a stand-alone mode by use of a computer. The invention utilizes a list-based processing method of generating and executing diagnostic scripts. For the purpose of diagnosing a health problem of a patient, medical knowledge is organized into a list of the diseases to be considered. Each disease on the disease list includes a list of symptoms that is checked in a patient. Each symptom on the symptom list is then further described as a response to a list of one or more questions asked of the patient about the symptom. This triply-nested list structure is converted by suitable data structure transformations into a script that is stored. When a patient requires diagnosis, the script is played back as a sequence of questions. The responses of the patient are analyzed and converted into symptoms. The symptoms are accumulated into diseases. Finally the diseases are selected and reported as a diagnosis.
298 Citations
5 Claims
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1. A method of performing an automated diagnostic session with a patient, comprising:
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storing in a computer a plurality of disease scripts, each script being associated with a disease;
storing medical information specific to the patient in a patient medical history;
selecting a set of disease scripts to be considered for diagnosis based on the patient medical history;
executing a disease script associated with a selected one of the set of disease scripts;
collecting additional medical information from the execution of the disease script; and
automatically changing the set of disease scripts to be further considered for diagnosis based on the patient medical history and the collected medical information. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5)
a) executing a new disease script from the automatically changed set of disease scripts;
b) collecting new medical information from the execution of the new disease script;
c) automatically changing the set of disease scripts to be further considered for diagnosis based on the patient medical history and the collected new medical information; and
repeating a), b) and c) until a diagnosis is achieved.
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Specification