Computerized medical diagnostic system utilizing list-based processing
First Claim
1. A system for performing an automated diagnostic session with a patient, comprising:
- a plurality of disease scripts, each script being associated with a disease;
a patient medical history configured to store medical information specific to a patient;
a script router configured to select a set of disease scripts to be considered for diagnosis based on the patient medical history; and
a script engine operating on a computer and configured to execute a disease script associated with a selected one of the set of disease scripts and collect additional medical information from the execution of the disease script, wherein the script router automatically changes the set of disease scripts to be further considered for diagnosis based on the patient medical history and the collected medical information.
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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.
188 Citations
34 Claims
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1. A system for performing an automated diagnostic session with a patient, comprising:
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a plurality of disease scripts, each script being associated with a disease;
a patient medical history configured to store medical information specific to a patient;
a script router configured to select a set of disease scripts to be considered for diagnosis based on the patient medical history; and
a script engine operating on a computer and configured to execute a disease script associated with a selected one of the set of disease scripts and collect additional medical information from the execution of the disease script, wherein the script router automatically changes 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, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12)
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13. A method of performing an automated diagnostic session with a patient, comprising:
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providing a plurality of disease scripts, each script being associated with a disease;
storing medical information specific to a 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 (14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26)
executing a new disease script from the automatically changed set of disease scripts;
collecting new medical information from the execution of the new 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 new medical information.
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26. The method defined in claim 25, additionally comprising automatically changing the set of disease scripts to be further considered for diagnosis until a diagnosis is achieved.
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27. A medical diagnostic system, comprising:
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a plurality of medical diagnostic scripts stored in a script database;
a script engine configured to receive and execute a medical diagnostic script selected from the plurality of medical diagnostic scripts, wherein the selected script comprises;
a list of diseases, and a list of symptoms associated with each disease in the list of diseases;
wherein the script engine selectively accesses the selected medical diagnostic script and attempts to diagnose a medical condition associated with the medical diagnostic script, the script engine being arranged to receive patient information and determine the presence of one or more symptoms from the list of symptoms, wherein each determined symptom contributes a weight to a diagnostic score for each disease in the list of diseases; and
a script router configured to automatically select a medical diagnostic script from the plurality of medical diagnostic scripts, wherein the script router receives patient information comprising one or more user chief complaints or symptoms and/or a portion of a patient medical history, and wherein the script router retrieves the selected script from the script database. - View Dependent Claims (28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33)
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34. A medical diagnostic system, comprising:
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a plurality of medical diagnostic scripts stored in a script database;
a script engine configured to receive and execute a medical diagnostic script selected from the plurality of medical diagnostic scripts, wherein the selected script comprises;
a list of diseases, and a list of symptoms associated with each disease in the list of diseases;
wherein the script engine selectively accesses the selected medical diagnostic script and attempts to diagnose a medical condition associated with the medical diagnostic script, the script engine being arranged to receive patient information and determine the presence of one or more symptoms from the list of symptoms, wherein each determined symptom contributes a weight to a diagnostic score for each disease in the list of diseases; and
a script router configured to automatically select a medical diagnostic script from the plurality of medical diagnostic scripts, wherein the script router receives patient information comprising one or more user chief complaints or symptoms and/or a portion of a patient medical history, and wherein the script router retrieves the selected script from the script database, and wherein the script router automatically selects a different script based on the patient information if a diagnosis is not achieved executing the original script.
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Specification