Quality control system in disease management services for checking adherence to therapy

• US 7,186,216 B2
• Filed: 08/07/2002
• Issued: 03/06/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 08/07/2001
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Siemens Healthcare GMBH (Siemens AG)
• Original Assignee: Siemens AG
• Inventors: Abraham-Fuchs, Klaus, Rumpel, Eva, Tietze, Daniel, Schmidt, Kai-Uwe, Bieger, Johannes
• Primary Examiner(s): Hindenburg; Max F.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Astorino; Michael C
• Application Number:
  US10/212,690
• Publication Number:
  US 20030040661A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,672 Days
• Field of Search: 434236-238, 434/262, 434/322, 434/323, 434/350, 434/362, 434/235, 600300-301, 600/587, 600/595, 342/573.1, 128/904, 128/920, 128/897, 705 2- 4, 273429-432
• US Class Current: 600/300
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 10/20 for electronic clinical trials or questionnaires
• 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 40/67 for remote operation
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 50/20 for computer-aided diagnosis, e.g. based on medical expert systems
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 128/92 Computer assisted medical diagnostics

Abstract

Quality control system in Disease Management Services involving education, development and motivation of patients suffering from widespread chronic diseases, such as diabetes, asthma or hypertension, possibly involving telemonitoring of critical body values and resultant early identification and avoidance of risk situations, where an automatic delivery monitoring facility is provided which monitors the receipt of all messages and information by the patients and, if appropriate, informs a control station in order to eliminate access problems.

Claims

1. An automated quality control system for a disease management service (DMS) whose patients suffer from diseases requiring long-term attention by the patient, the system comprising:

a delivery unit that sends training material to a patient suffering from a disease requiring long-term attention by the patient, the training material including educational material relating to and aiding patient self-treatment and related to the disease and a comprehension test that is to be taken by the patient after having received the educational material and that determines whether the patient has understood the educational material;

a receipt acknowledgment unit that automatically confirms receipt of the training material by the patient;

a test evaluation unit that automatically evaluates answers to the comprehension test that has been taken by the patient and returned to the DMS; and

a telemonitoring system that monitors body parameter values of the patient.

2. The quality control system of claim 1, wherein said test evaluation unit automatically generates a warning based on a negative automatic evaluation of the answers to the comprehension test by said test evaluation unit, the warning being sent from the DMS to at least one of the patient, a care giver for the patient, and a health insurer for the patient.

3. The quality control system of claim 2, wherein said delivery unit sends further training material to the patient based on a positive automatic evaluation of the answers to the comprehension test by said test evaluation unit.

4. The quality control system of claim 1, wherein said delivery unit sends further training material to the patient based on a positive automatic evaluation of the answers to the comprehension test by said test evaluation unit.

5. The quality control system of claim 1, further comprising an expert system operating in accordance with predetermined rules, said expert system generating rules for generation of questions for the comprehension test based on the disease suffered by the patient and on a background of the patient, so that the questions in the comprehension test vary from patient to patient.

6. The quality control system of claim 1, wherein said test evaluation unit operates dynamically and adds or amends a later question in the comprehension test if the patient provides an incorrect response to a question in the comprehension test.

7. The quality control system of claim 1, wherein said test evaluation unit provides a quantified score from the evaluation of the answers to the comprehension test, and wherein the quantified score is used by the quality control system to produce a dynamically structured treatment plan for the patient.

8. The quality control system of claim 7, wherein said test evaluation unit generates a warning based on the quantified score, the warning being sent from the DMS to at least one of the patient, a care giver for the patient, and a health insurer for the patient.

9. The quality control system of claim 8, wherein said delivery unit sends further said training material to the patient based on the quantified score.

19. The quality control system of claim 1, wherein said training material further includes motivational material for motivating said patient to continue self-treatment.

10. An automated quality control method for a disease management service (DMS) whose patients suffer from diseases requiring long-term attention by the patient, the method comprising the steps of:

sending training material to a patient suffering from a disease requiring long-term attention by the patient, the training material including educational material relating to and aiding patient self-treatment and related to the disease and a comprehension test that is to be taken by the patient after having received the educational material and that determines whether the patient has understood the educational material;

automatically acknowledging that the training material has been received by the patient;

automatically evaluating answers to the comprehension test that has been taken by the patient and returned to the DMS; and

monitoring body parameter values of the patient.

11. The quality control method of claim 10, further comprising the step of automatically generating warnings based on a negative automatic evaluation of the answers to the comprehension test, the warnings being sent from the DMS to at least one of the patient, a care giver for the patient, and a health insurer for the patient.

12. The quality control method of claim 11, further comprising the step of sending further training material to the patient based on a positive automatic evaluation of the answers to the comprehension test.

13. The quality control method of claim 10, further comprising the step of generating rules for generation of questions for the comprehension test based on the disease suffered by the patient and on a background of the patient, so that the questions in the comprehension test vary from patient to patient.

14. The quality control method of claim 10, further comprising the step of revising a later question in the comprehension test when the patient provides an incorrect response to a question in the comprehension test.

15. The quality control method of claim 10, further comprising the step of providing a quantified score from the evaluation of the answers to the comprehension test, and wherein the quantified score is used to produce a dynamically structured treatment plan for the patient.

16. The quality control method of claim 15, further comprising the step of generating a warning based on the quantified score, the warning being sent from the DMS to at least one of the patient, a care giver for the patient, and a health insurer for the patient.

17. The quality control method of claim 16, further comprising the step of sending further training material to the patient based on the quantified score.

18. The quality control method of claim 10, wherein said step of sending training material further includes sending motivational material for motivating said patient to continue self-treatment.