System for animal health diagnosis

• US 7,548,839 B2
• Filed: 08/05/2003
• Issued: 06/16/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 10/15/1999
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Hemopet
• Original Assignee: Hemopet
• Inventors: Dodds, W. Jean
• Primary Examiner(s): Brusca; John S
• Assistant Examiner(s): WHALEY, PABLO S
• Application Number:
  US10/635,707
• Publication Number:
  US 20040039258A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,142 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 703/3
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2503/40 Animals
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0002 Remote monitoring of patients using telemetry, e.g. transmission of vital signals via a communication network A61B5/07 takes precedence; transmission systems for measured values G08C; transmission H04B; transmission of digital information H04L; wireless communication networks H04W
• CPC Class Codes: G16B 20/00 ICT specially adapted for functional genomics or proteomics, e.g. genotype-phenotype associations
• CPC Class Codes: G16B 20/20 Allele or variant detection, e.g. single nucleotide polymorphism [SNP] detection
• CPC Class Codes: G16B 50/00 ICT programming tools or database systems specially adapted for bioinformatics
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 10/40 for data related to laboratory analysis, e.g. patient specimen analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 10/60 for patient-specific data, e.g. for electronic patient records
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 15/00 ICT specially adapted for medical reports, e.g. generation or transmission thereof
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 20/60 relating to nutrition control, e.g. diets
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/67 for remote operation
• CPC Class Codes: Y02A 90/10 Information and communication technologies [ICT] supporting adaptation to climate change, e.g. for weather forecasting or climate simulation
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 128/92 Computer assisted medical diagnostics
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 128/921 Diet management
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 128/923 by comparison of patient data to other data

Abstract

A diagnosis of the health of an animal is obtained through a combination of computerized data and human interpretation. Data relates to the physical characteristics of the animal, and includes data obtained from a physical inspection of the animal. A blood or other fluid sample is used to obtain a computer generated laboratory analysis. This is reported through an internet network to the clinical pathologist. The clinical pathologist has the data relating to the physical characteristics, and thereby makes a diagnosis of the animal health. A drop-down menu on a computer screen provides supplemental reports to support the diagnosis. This can be enhanced by further input from the pathologist through keyboard entry into the computer to obtain an integrated computer report having the laboratory analysis, supplemental report, and selectively an enhanced report. The integrated report is electronically communicated to a client.

Claims

1. A method of obtaining and electronically delivering a diagnosis of the health of a dog through a combination of computerized data and human interpretation related to the dog comprising:

obtaining data relating to the physical characteristics of the dog, the data being obtained from a physical inspection, family or breed history of the dog, and submitting the data to a clinical pathologist;

securing a blood sample from the dog and submitting the blood or other body fluid sample for laboratory analysis of the total T4, total T3, free T4, free T3, T3 autoantibody, T4 autoantibody and thyroglobulin autoantibody;

generating a computer report of the laboratory analysis;

reporting the analysis through a network to the clinical pathologist wherein the clinical pathologist has the data relating to the physical characteristics thereby making a preliminary diagnosis of the dog'"'"'s health;

generating from a menu on a computer screen a supplemental diagnostic report in combination with the laboratory analytical report to support the diagnosis, wherein the laboratory analytical report is in a first computer program and wherein the menu is in a second computer program;

transferring the data from the first computer program to the second computer program;

configuring the second computer program to permit supplementation of the data from the first computer program, and including in the menu selectable icons defining predetermined supplemental report characteristics, the characteristics of the selectable icons being such as to be representative of textual content to be added to the supplementary report, and wherein different selectable icons are individually related to animal characteristics of age and animal grouping, and wherein selectable icons related to animal characteristics are selected by the clinical pathologist to supplement the laboratory report, including selecting the selectable icons for animal characteristics dependant on age and animal grouping,

selecting from the selectable icons for animal groupings icons for adult, puppy-adolescent, geriatric, or large breed dog and selecting selectable icons for a disease state, being thyroid disease, the selectable icons being representative of being normal relative to thyroid disease, or abnormal relative to thyroid disease;

establishing optimal levels for thyroid disease analysis, the levels being defined by a range different from a laboratory reference range as presented in the laboratory report, and wherein the adult optimal level of free T3 (FT3) is less than 8 pg/mL and of free T4 (FT4) is less than 3 ng/dL;

assessing thyroid function as pan of the preliminary analysis by comparison to the optimal levels to thereby obtain a supplemental report;

enhancing the supplemental report by a further input from the pathologist through data entry into the computer;

generating an integrated computer report wherein the report comprises the laboratory analysis, supplemental report, and the enhanced report; and

communicating the integrated or enhanced report indicating thyroid function to a remotely located client, such communicating being electronic.

2. A method as claimed in claim 1 wherein the electronic communication to the client is by email or fax, and wherein the second computer program includes a utility to transmit the integrated report from the second program.

3. A method as claimed in claim 1 wherein the drop down menu is contained in a toolbar, wherein the toolbar functions to provide features for supplementing an application, selectively a word processing program.

4. A method as claimed in claim 1 wherein the menu includes a toolbar and the toolbar includes icons defining predetermined supplemental report characteristics, and wherein selected icons may be used by the clinical pathologist to supplement the laboratory analytical report.

5. A method as claimed in claim 4 including selecting icons for disease states, wherein the disease states comprise thyroid disease, autoimmune disease, or cancer.

6. A method as claimed in claim 4 including icons for selected levels of immunity from infectious disease, a titer of immunity from a disease agent(s) in the animal, and a need for vaccination of the animal against a disease.

7. A method as claimed in claim 1 wherein the menu includes a toolbar and the toolbar includes icons defining predetermined supplemental report characteristics, and wherein selected icons may be used by the clinical pathologist to supplement the laboratory report.

8. A method as claimed in claim 7 including selecting icons for disease states and the disease states are thyroid disease, behavior, autoimmune disease, or cancer.

9. A method as claimed in claim 7 including selecting the icons for levels of immunity from infectious disease, a titer of immunity from a disease in the animal, or a need for vaccination of the animal against a disease.

10. A method as claimed in claim 1 including grouping the icons, the icons including textual information related to the diagnostic interpretation for adult, puppy-adolescent, geriatric, or large breed dog.