Computer system and method for a self administered risk assessment

• US 6,334,192 B1
• Filed: 03/09/1998
• Issued: 12/25/2001
• Est. Priority Date: 03/09/1998
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Ronald S. Karpf
• Original Assignee: Ronald S. Karpf
• Inventors: Karpf, Ronald S.
• Primary Examiner(s): Beausoleil, Robert
• Assistant Examiner(s): Bonzo, Bryce P.
• Application Number:
  US09/037,165
• Time in Patent Office: 1,387 Days
• Field of Search: 700/90, 705/2, 707/104, 706/45, 706/924, 600/300, 128/920, 128/924, 714/1
• US Class Current: 714/1
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 7/00 Electrically-operated teaching apparatus or devices working with questions and answers mechanically operated G09B3/00; computing arrangements G06F
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 10/20 for electronic clinical trials or questionnaires
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 50/20 for computer-aided diagnosis, e.g. based on medical expert systems
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 50/30 for calculating health indices; for individual health risk assessment
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 50/50 for simulation or modelling of medical disorders
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 128/92 Computer assisted medical diagnostics
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 128/924 using artificial intelligence

Abstract

A computer system for performing an interactive assessment of the risk of an event, has a computer monitor to present to a user of the system a series of questions and potential responses, and a keyboard or other device to select a response to the question. The system can administer complex inverted tree type decision algorithms, in which the questions that are presented to the user, depend upon the response to the previous question, and an assessment of the risk of an event is presented to the user whenever they reach the terminus point in the decision tree. The risk assessment algorithm is data driven and a risk assessment is defined by entries in a file, which is available over a network. The system provides options so each user may view the path through the sequence of questions and answers, and interact with the risk assessment, in a manner customized for their own interactive session.

Claims

1. A distributed computer system for performing a self administered interactive medical risk assessment, comprising:

(a) a client program executing on a first computer;

(b) a server program executing on a second computer;

(c) a computer network using a non-persistent network protocol;

(d) a risk assessment definition file that defines the risk assessment to be administered by the client program at the first computer to a user;

(e) means for the user to select the risk assessment that is to be administered by said client program;

(f) means for said client program to request and download the risk assessment definition file from the second computer over said computer network; and

(g) client administer means for said client program to administer the selected risk assessment at the first computer, wherein said client administer means executes a program comprising the steps of;

(i) visually displaying a portion of the risk assessment as a tree diagram;

(ii) allowing the user to respond to a question from the selected risk assessment; and

(iii) updating the risk assessment to reflect the most recent response by displaying an evaluated risk if the response was to a terminal question, otherwise redisplaying the risk assessment as in step (i);

wherein a user assesses their own risk using complicated inverted tree type risk assessment algorithms.

2. The system as recited in claim 1 wherein said risk definition file includes:

(a) a description of the risk that is being assessed;

(b) the text of each question in the risk assessment;

(c) identification of the first question in said risk assessment;

(d) the text of the allowable responses associated with each question; and

(e) the action to be taken in response to a question during the interactive risk assessment, wherein the action is either the specification of the next question to be displayed, or that the risk assessment is completed;

wherein a data definition describing a complicated risk assessment can be updated and maintained; and

wherein different risk assessments can be maintained on the second computer for display by said client program on the first computer.

3. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein said client administer means further executes a program comprising the steps of:

(i) visually showing a portion of the tree-structure risk assessment that

(1) includes the current question and its associated response(s), and for each of its said associated response(s), their associated next question or terminal state; and

visually indicates the relationship between the current question and its associated response(s), and for each of its said associated response(s), visually indicates the relationship with their next question or terminal state;

(2) for all prior displayed answered questions, visually indicates the path of questions, associated responses and next questions that lead to the current question in the risk assessment; and

(3) visually indicates which question is the current question that is to be responded to by the user in the risk assessment;

(ii) beginning the risk assessment by displaying a portion of the tree-structure as in (i) above, with the current question being the first question in the risk assessment;

(iii) allowing the user to respond to the current question by responding to one of the responses associated with the current question, and resetting the current question to the question associated with the selected associated response; and

(iv) updating the risk assessment to reflect the most recent response by displaying the evaluated risk or associated response if the most recent response was to a terminal question, or redisplaying the risk assessment as in (i) above if the most recent response was not to a terminal question.

4. The system as recited in claim 3, wherein said step of visually showing a portion of the tree-structure risk assessment further comprises the step of including some of the prior questions answered by the user and their associated response(s), and for each prior associated response(s), their associated next question or terminal state;

and for each said included prior question, visually indicating the relationship between the prior question and its associated response(s), and for each of its said associated response(s), visually indicating the relationship with their next question or terminal state.

5. The system as recited in claim 3, wherein said step of visually showing a portion of the tree-structure risk assessment further comprises the step of including subsequent questions and their associated response(s), and for each subsequent associated response(s), their associated next question or terminal state;

and for each included subsequent question, visually indicating the relationship between the subsequent questions and its associated response(s), and for each of its associated response(s), visually indicating the relationship with their next question or terminal state.

6. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein the self administered interactive risk assessment requires a response to every question, and is question order dependent.

7. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein the second computer is a server accessed by the first computer using hypertext transport protocol.

8. The system as recited in claim 7, wherein said risk assessment definition file is associated with a uniform resource locator (URL).

9. A method of performing a user administered interactive medical risk assessment, the method comprising:

(a) executing a client program on a first computer;

(b) executing a server program on a second computer;

(c) initiating a computer network connection between the first computer and second computer using a non-persistent network protocol;

(d) using a risk assessment definition file to define the risk assessment to be administered by the client program at the first computer to a user;

(e) allowing a user to select the risk assessment that is to be administered by the client program;

(f) requesting and downloading the risk assessment definition file from the second computer over the computer network; and

(g) using the client program to administer the selected risk assessment, at the first computer

(i) visually displaying a portion of the risk assessment as a tree diagram;

(ii) allowing the user to respond to a question from the selected risk assessment; and

(iii) updating the risk assessment to reflect the most recent response by displaying an evaluated risk if the response was to a terminal question, otherwise redisplaying the risk assessment as in step (i);

wherein a user assesses a risk using complicated inverted tree type risk assessment algorithms.

10. The method as recited in claim 9, wherein said risk definition file includes:

(a) a description of the risk that is being assessed;

(b) the text of each question in the risk assessment;

(c) identification of the first question in said risk assessment;

(d) the text of the allowable responses associated with each question; and

(e) the action to be taken in response to a question during the interactive risk assessment, wherein the action is either the specification of the next question to be displayed, or that the risk assessment is completed;

wherein a data definition describing a complicated risk assessment can be updated and maintained; and

wherein different risk assessments can be maintained on the second computer for display by said client program on the first computer.

11. The method as recited in claim 9, further comprising the steps of

(i) visually showing a portion of the tree-structure risk assessment that

(1) includes the current question and its associated response(s), and for each of its said associated response(s), their associated next question or terminal state;

and visually indicates the relationship between the current question and its associated response(s), and for each of its said associated response(s), visually indicates the relationship with their next question or terminal state;

(2) for all prior displayed answered questions, visually indicates the path of questions, associated responses and next questions that lead to the current question in the risk assessment; and

(3) visually indicates which question is the current question that is to be responded to by the user in the risk assessment;

(ii) beginning the risk assessment by displaying a portion of the tree-structure as in (i) above, with the current question being the first question in the risk assessment;

(iii) allowing the user to respond to the current question by responding to one of the responses associated with the current question, and resetting the current question to the question associated with the selected associated response; and

(iv) updating the risk assessment to reflect the most recent response by displaying the evaluated risk or associated response if the most recent response was to a terminal question, or redisplaying the risk assessment as in (i) above if the most recent response was not to a terminal question.

12. The method as recited in claim 11, wherein the selected risk assessment is used for emergency room department patients.

13. The method as recited in claim 9, wherein the selected risk assessment requires a response to every question in order.

14. The method as recited in claim 9, wherein said requesting step (f) includes specifying a uniform resource locator (URL) of the risk definition file.