Computer system and method for increasing patients compliance to medical care instructions

• US 7,287,031 B1
• Filed: 08/12/1999
• Issued: 10/23/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 08/12/1999
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Arthur Beau White, Ronald Steven Karpf
• Original Assignee: Arthur Beau White, Ronald Steven Karpf
• Inventors: Karpf, Ronald Steven, White, Arthur Beau
• Primary Examiner(s): Rimell; Sam
• Application Number:
  US09/372,955
• Time in Patent Office: 2,994 Days
• Field of Search: 705/1, 705/2, 705/3, 705/4, 600/300, 600/301, 715/536, 707/100, 707/104.1
• US Class Current: 1/1
• 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 40/63 for local operation
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 70/60 relating to pathologies
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99945 Object-oriented database structure processing

Abstract

The Electronic Compliance Promoter is a computer system for increasing a patient'"'"'s compliance with medical post-care treatment instructions. The system permits the patient to review the treatment instructions that have been entered into a treatment instructions database by medical personnel at the time of the examination. The system includes a patient-client computer interface, a medical person-client interface, a treatment instructions database, and a compliance-server program. The database contains the post-visit care instructions and other types of information that the patient should have to understand and follow those instructions. The database also has treatment guideline information to assist the doctor in formulating the post-care treatment instructions. The patients client-computer interface provides a knowledge-based means for the patient to review interactively the Doctor'"'"'s after care instructions, and measures compliance by tracking a patients'"'"' use of the specific designated diagnosis related resources. The medical personnel client-computer interface provides a knowledge-based means to designate the post-care medical visit instructions the patient is to follow. The compliance-server program tracks patients compliance and can send messages to patients reminding them to review the post-care treatment instructions. The Electronic Compliance Promoter system provides a means to significantly increase a patient'"'"'s compliance with medical care instructions.

Claims

1. An electronic compliance promoter for use in promoting patient compliance with treatment instructions comprising:

a medical personnel client, wherein said medical personnel client inputs from medical personnel diagnosis and treatment information regarding a patient following a medical appointment with the patient;

a treatment server computer, wherein said treatment server computer receives diagnosis and treatment information from said medical personnel client;

a treatment instructions database, wherein said treatment instructions database stores the diagnosis and treatment information received from said treatment server computer; and

a patient client, wherein said patient client accesses said treatment server computer over a network and views the diagnosis and treatment information corresponding to the patient;

wherein said treatment server computer records patient compliance information based on access by said patient client to the diagnosis information and treatment information stored on said treatment instructions database; and

wherein both said medical personnel client and said patient client gain access to said treatment server computer to view the recorded patient compliance information.

2. The electronic compliance promoter as set forth in claim 1, wherein said treatment server computer measures patient compliance based on the patient compliance information recorded, and issues compliance reminders in response to a determination that a patient has not been compliant.

3. The electronic compliance promoter as set forth in claim 2, wherein said treatment server computer records preference data for each patient regarding information to be received by the patient.

4. The electronic compliance promoter as set forth in claim 3, wherein said treatment server computer issues reminders to patients by transmitting a reminder message over the network via at least one of e-mail, mail, phone, beeper, and cable TV based on preference data recorded by said treatment server computer.

5. The electronic compliance promoter as set forth in claim 3, wherein said treatment server computer presents diagnosis and treatment information to said patient client over the network in accordance with a preferred language recorded in the preference data.

6. A computer system for use in monitoring compliance of patients with prescribed treatments, the computer system comprising a patient client, a medical client, a treatment server, and a treatment database all connected through a network, wherein in the computer system—

said treatment server includes a first article of manufacture comprising a machine-readable storage medium having stored therein indicia of a plurality of machine-executable program steps of a first control program, the first control program comprising the steps of;

receiving diagnosis and treatment information for each of a plurality of patients;

storing the diagnosis and treatment information in said treatment database in association with respective ones of the plurality of patients; and

retrieving and serving the diagnosis and treatment information stored in said treatment database in response to a query from said patient client;

said patient client includes a second article of manufacture comprising a machine-readable storage medium having stored therein indicia of a plurality of machine-executable program steps of a second control program, the second control program comprising the steps of;

issuing a query to said treatment server for diagnosis and treatment information associated with an identified patient;

accessing over the network the diagnosis and treatment information stored in said treatment database associated with the identified patient; and

presenting the diagnosis and treatment information to the identified patient;

said medical client includes a third article of manufacture comprising a machine-readable storage medium having stored therein indicia of a plurality of machine-executable program steps of a third control program, the third control program comprising the steps of;

transmitting to said treatment server diagnosis and treatment information associated with each of the plurality of patients; and

retrieving and presenting the diagnosis and treatment information stored in said treatment database associated with selected patients;

wherein said first control program further comprises the steps of;

determining access of the diagnosis and treatment information by the identified patient; and

recording compliance of the identified patient based on access by the identified patient of the diagnosis and treatment information associated with the identified patient.

7. The computer system as recited in claim 6, wherein the first control program further comprises the step of calculating a measure of compliance of the identified patient based on access of informational resources listed as part of the diagnosis and treatment information served to said patient client.

8. The computer system as recited in claim 7, wherein said calculating step in the first control program is performed by measuring a length of time that the identified patient, using said patient client, reviews information on a given informational resource.

9. The computer system as recited in claim 7, wherein said calculating step in the first control program is performed by measuring a rate at which the identified patient reviews the diagnosis and treatment information on said patient client.

10. The computer system as recited in claim 7, wherein the presenting step of the second control program comprises the step of presenting, as part of the diagnosis and treatment information, a list of resources that includes a list of resources containing information relevant to the diagnosis and treatment of the identified patient.

11. The computer system as recited in claim 10, wherein said patient client is a personal computer and the network is the Internet.

12. A method of promoting patient compliance, the method comprising the steps of:

entering patient data concerning a patient, wherein the patient data comprises diagnosis and treatment information associated with a medical appointment, wherein said entering step includes—

the step of entering diagnosis information that includes;

(i) identification of at least one disease; and

(ii) a listing of diagnosis resources containing information on the at least one disease; and

the step of entering treatment information that includes;

(i) treatment instructions describing the patient'"'"'s treatment regimen for each disease identified in the diagnosis information; and

(ii) a listing of treatment resources containing information on the treatment regimen for the at least one disease;

receiving through a network the patient data and storing the patient data in a database;

permitting the patient to retrieve the stored diagnosis and treatment information over the network from the database;

determining the access by the patient of diagnosis and treatment information, including determining the access to the listed diagnosis and treatment resources;

storing in the database a record of compliance of the patient based on the results of said determining access step;

permitting a medical administrator over the network to view the record of compliance of the patient as stored in the database; and

sending a reminder to the patient regarding compliance with the treatment instructions based on the record of compliance stored in the database.

13. The method recited in claim 12, wherein said determining access step, further includes determining access to treatment instructions associated with the patient, the method further comprising:

measuring full compliance of the patient based on access to all of the treatment instructions provided to the patient;

measuring partial compliance of the patient based on access to less than a predetermined number of the treatment instructions provided to the patient; and

measuring non-compliance of the patient based on no access to the treatment instructions provided to the patient.

14. The method recited in claim 12, further comprising:

storing recommended clinical guidelines in the database, wherein the recommended clinical guidelines contain information about recommended clinical therapeutic guidelines for a diagnoses; and

wherein said entering step further comprises the step of prompting medical personnel with recommended clinical guidelines for selection and inclusion in the treatment instructions entered for the patient.

15. The method recited in claim 12, wherein said entering step further comprises the step of entering alert information that includes at least one symptom that may be experienced by the patient that would require immediate medical attention, the method further comprising the steps of displaying at a patient terminal:

(i) a list of medical appointments attended by the patient and the results thereof;

(ii) treatment instructions provided by medical personnel after each medical appointment listed;

(iii) alert information;

(iv) diagnosis information; and

(v) treatment information.

16. The method recited in claim 12, further comprising the steps of displaying at a medical administrator terminal:

(i) a list of patients;

(ii) for each patient listed in (i), a list of medical appointments attended by each patient;

(iii) for each medical appointment listed in (ii), a list of diseases diagnosed;

(iv) for each disease listed in (iii), a list of categories of information provided to the patient, including treatment instructions, diagnosis information, treatment information, alerts, and follow-up instructions; and

(v) for each category listed in (iv), an indication as to whether the patient has accessed the information in the category.

17. The method recited in claim 12, wherein said sending a reminder step comprises the step of manually initiating by a medical administrator a reminder to a patient based on the record of compliance.