Support system for making decisions on medical treatment plans or test plans

• US 6,807,531 B1
• Filed: 04/08/1999
• Issued: 10/19/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 04/08/1998
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Sysmex Corporation
• Original Assignee: Sysmex Corporation
• Inventors: Kanai, Kazuyuki
• Primary Examiner(s): Thomas, Joseph
• Assistant Examiner(s): Gilligan, Christopher L.
• Application Number:
  US09/288,504
• Time in Patent Office: 2,021 Days
• Field of Search: 705/2, 705/3, 600/300, 703/11, 706/15
• US Class Current: 705/2
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 10/60 for patient-specific data, e.g. for electronic patient records
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 20/00 ICT specially adapted for therapies or health-improving plans, e.g. for handling prescriptions, for steering therapy or for monitoring patient compliance
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 50/70 for mining of medical data, e.g. analysing previous cases of other patients

Abstract

A support system for making decisions on medical treatment plans or test plans includes using a decision tree having branches that represent actions to be selected in deciding the medical treatment plans or test plans for a person to be inspected and events that may possibly occur as a result of the selected actions, and calculating expectations of the actions to be selected in accordance with occurrence probabilities with which the respective events occur and utility values which reflect intentions of the person to be inspected on the events. The occurrence probabilities of the branches are renewable in accordance with attribute information of the person to be inspected.

Claims

1. A support system for use in making decisions on medical treatment plans or test plans, said support system using a decision tree including branches that represent actions to be selected in deciding on a medical treatment plan or test plan for a person to be inspected and events that may occur as a result of the selected actions;

and calculating expectations of the actions to be selected in accordance with occurrence probabilities for the respective events and utility values which reflect intentions of the person to be inspected on the events, wherein the occurrence probabilities of the branches are renewable in accordance with attribute information of the person to be inspected.

2. A support system according to claim 1, wherein the attribute information of the person to be inspected includes at least one of age, sex, weight, basic diseases, medical history, and test results of the person to be inspected.

3. A support system according to claim 1, wherein the utility values are calculated in accordance with data that includes at least one of certainty of results of a treatment or test, a degree of health recovery, sequela, costs of the treatment or test, pain of the treatment or test, length of the treatment or test or stay in a hospital, life expectancy, and change in quality of life.

4. A support system according to claim 3, wherein the utility values are calculated as numerical values in a plurality of ranks in accordance with the data in accordance with which the utility values are calculated.

5. A support system according to claim 3, wherein the one or more data items are based on a result of a medical inquiry on the intentions of the person to be inspected.

6. A support system according to claim 1, said system further displaying a correlation between the attribute information of the person to be inspected and the occurrence probabilities.

7. A support system according to claim 1, wherein said system is connected to a host computer for storing the attribute information of the person to be inspected.

8. A support system according to claim 1, wherein the occurrence probabilities are renewable in accordance with information from a network.

9. A support system for use in making decisions on medical treatment or test plans, comprising:

a decision tree data storing section storing a decision tree, said decision tree having branches that represent available actions to be selected in deciding on a medical treatment or test plan for a patient and events that may occur upon selecting an available action; and

a calculating section calculating expectation values for each available action of said decision tree based on occurrence probabilities for events that may occur upon selecting the corresponding available action and utility values associated with the events that may occur, such utility values reflecting the subjective worth the patient attributes to the corresponding events that may occur,

wherein the occurrence probabilities for events that may occur upon selecting an available action are based on patient attribute information.

10. A support system according to claim 9, wherein the patient attribute information upon which the occurrence probabilities are based includes at least one of age, gender, weight, medical history, and test results.

11. A support system according to claim 9, wherein the utility values associated with each event that may occur upon selecting an available action are based on information that includes at least one of cost, certainty of event, degree of recovery, amount of pain, change in quality of life, length of hospital stay, and life expectancy associated with the event.

12. A support system according to claim 11, wherein the utility values for events that may occur upon selecting an available action are calculated as ranked numerical values in accordance with the information upon which the utility values are based.

13. A support system according to claim 11, wherein the utility values are further based on a result of an inquiry that determines the subjective preferences of the patient.

14. A support system according to claim 9, further comprising:

a display displaying a correlation between the patient attribute information and the occurrence probabilities associated with the events that may occur upon selecting an available action.

15. A support system according to claim 9, wherein said system is operatively connected to a host computer that stores the patient attribute information.

16. A support system according to claim 9, wherein occurrence probabilities associated with the events that may occur as a result of an available action are updated via a network.

17. A support system according to claim 16, wherein the network is the internet.

18. A method for use in deciding on medical treatment or test plans, comprising:

accessing a decision tree data structure that stores a decision tree, said decision tree having branches that represent available actions to be selected in deciding on a medical treatment or test plan for a patient and events that may occur upon selecting an available action;

receiving patient attribute information; and

calculating expectation values for each available action of said decision tree based on occurrence probabilities for events that may occur upon selecting the corresponding available action and utility values associated with the events that may occur, such utility values reflecting the subjective worth the patient attributes to the corresponding events that may occur,

wherein the occurrence probabilities used to calculate the expectation values are based on the received patient attribute information.

19. A method according to claim 18, wherein the received patient attribute information upon which the occurrence probabilities are based includes at least one of age, gender, weight, medical history, and test results.

20. A method according to claim 18, wherein the utility values associated with each event that may occur upon selecting an available action are based on information that includes at least one of cost, certainty of event, degree of recovery, amount of pain, change in quality of life, length of hospital stay, and life expectancy associated with the event.

21. A method according to claim 20, wherein the utility values for events that may occur upon selecting an available action are calculated as ranked numerical values in accordance with the information upon which the utility values are based.

22. A method according to claim 20, wherein the utility values are further based on a result of an inquiry that determines the subjective preferences of the patient.

23. A method according to claim 18, further comprising:

displaying a correlation between the patient attribute information and the occurrence probabilities associated with the events that may occur upon selecting an available action.

24. A method according to claim 18, wherein the patient attribute information is received and stored by a host computer.

25. A method according to claim 18, wherein occurrence probabilities associated with the events that may occur as a result of an available action are updated via a network.

26. A method according to claim 25, wherein the network is the internet.