Communication system for information of medical doctor's questions to patients, terminal apparatus for medical doctor and terminal apparatus for patient

• US 7,603,282 B2
• Filed: 01/30/2002
• Issued: 10/13/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 01/30/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: PHC Holdings Corporation
• Original Assignee: Panasonic Corporation (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Nagamoto, Shunichi, Miyazaki, Jinsei, Kanazawa, Kiyoshi, Nomura, Hiroyoshi, Imai, Hirohisa
• Primary Examiner(s): O'Connor, Gerald J.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Najarian, Lena
• Application Number:
  US10/058,732
• Publication Number:
  US 20080172245A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,813 Days
• Field of Search: 705 2- 3, 707/104.1
• US Class Current: 705/2
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 10/20 for electronic clinical trials or questionnaires
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/67 for remote operation
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99945 Object-oriented database structure processing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99948 Application of database or data structure, e.g. distributed, multimedia, or image

Abstract

A communication system for providing information of a medical doctor'"'"'s questions to patients includes a medical doctor terminal apparatus, a patient terminal apparatus, and a database server apparatus for storing question sets for the medical doctor'"'"'s questions to patients, where the medical doctor terminal apparatus, patient terminal apparatus and database server apparatus are connected through a communication network. The patient terminal apparatus generates question programs for making inquiries about the medical doctor'"'"'s questions to patients in accordance with the question sets received from the database server apparatus, displays the questions for the medical doctor'"'"'s questions to patients by execution of the generated question programs, enters answer data to the displayed questions, transmits the entered answer data to the database server apparatus, and stores the transmitted answer data in the database server apparatus. The medical doctor terminal apparatus receives the stored answer data by accessing the database server apparatus, and displays the received answer data thereon.

Claims

1. A communication system for providing information of a medical doctor'"'"'s questions to patients, said communication system comprising a medical doctor terminal apparatus, a patient terminal apparatus, and a database server apparatus for storing question set data for the medical doctor'"'"'s questions to patients, said medical doctor terminal apparatus, said patient terminal apparatus and said database server apparatus are connected to each other through a communication network,

wherein said patient terminal apparatus comprises:

first interface means for establishing a network connection and data communication between the database server apparatus and said patient terminal apparatus via the communication network;

first receiving means for receiving question set data from said database server apparatus, the question set data being dependent on a particular patient among a plurality of patients;

template storing means for storing template programs which correspond to predetermined forms used to present questions to be answered by a patient, the template programs are not dependent on a particular patient;

generating means for generating, upon receiving the question set data from said database server apparatus, question programs that create the forms which are dependent on a particular patient among a plurality of patients using a patient-independent template program from among the template programs stored in the template storing means so that patient-dependent question programs and forms are not transmitted through the communication network, the forms being created on the patient terminal by inserting the question set data received from said database server apparatus into the template programs, thereby retaining security of the questions to patients, the question programs being generated for providing medical doctor'"'"'s questions to patients;

displaying means for displaying questions for the medical doctor'"'"'s questions to patients by executing the question programs generated by said generating means;

entering means for entering answer data to the displayed questions; and

transmitting means for transmitting the entered answer data to said database server apparatus, and storing the transmitted answer data in said database server apparatus; and

second interface means for terminating the network connection and data communication between the database server apparatus and said patient terminal apparatus;

wherein said medical doctor terminal apparatus comprises second receiving means for receiving the answer data stored in said database server apparatus by accessing said database server apparatus, and displaying the received answer data, and

wherein the patient dependent question programs are not transmitted through the communication network.

2. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein each of the question set data includes data indicative of an answer form, and a question sentence.

3. The system as claimed in claim 2, wherein each of the question set data further includes data indicative of at least one selection sentence.

4. The system as claimed in claim 2, wherein each of the question set data further includes data indicative of a goal answer entered by a medical doctor.

5. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein:

said patient terminal apparatus further comprises answer data storing means for storing entered past answer data; and

said displaying means displays past answer data stored in said answer data storing means in conjunction with a question.

6. The system as claimed in claim 3, wherein said generating means comprises changing means for changing a display layout of the at least one selection sentence according to at least one of a number of selection sentences and a length of each selection sentence.

7. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein said medical doctor terminal apparatus further comprises:

transmitting and storing means for entering a remedy policy for a patient, transmitting the entered remedy policy to said database server apparatus, and storing the transmitted remedy policy in said database server apparatus; and

third receiving means for receiving the stored remedy policy for the patient by accessing said database server apparatus, and displaying the received remedy policy.

8. The system as claimed in claim 7, wherein said medical doctor terminal apparatus further comprises link controlling means for controlling said third receiving means in accordance with a command from an operator so that said third receiving means receives the stored remedy policy for the patient by accessing said database server apparatus and displays the received remedy policy, when said second receiving means receives the answer data and displays the received answer data.

9. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein said database server apparatus comprises:

first storing means for storing information about each respective patient;

second storing means for storing questions for medical doctor'"'"'s questions for each respective question;

third storing means for storing information about linking between the respective patients and respective questions; and

fourth storing means for storing answer data from said patient terminal apparatus.

10. The system as claimed in claim 9, wherein said third storing means further stores a goal answer entered by a medical doctor, in addition to the information about linking between the respective patients and respective questions.

17. The system as claimed in claim 1,

wherein template storing means stores template question programs which correspond to predetermined answer forms and are not dependent on a particular patient, and

wherein the generating means generates question programs which are dependent on a particular patient among a plurality of patients, by inserting question set data received from said database server apparatus into the template question programs.

19. The system as claimed in claim 17, wherein the forms include at least one of:

(a) a first answer form for answering by selecting at least one among a plurality of selection sentences of answers as an answer to a question; and

(b) a second answer form for answering by using a numerical value as an answer to the question.

21. The system as claimed in claim 19, wherein the second answer form includes at least one of:

(a) a third answer form for answering by directly entering a numerical value as an answer to the question; and

(b) a fourth answer form for answering by entering a numerical value indicative of an answer with either one of increasing and decreasing a numerical value starting at an initial value, as an answer to the question.

22. The system as claimed in claim 21, wherein:

said patient terminal apparatus further comprises answer data storing means for storing entered past answer data; and

the initial value of the numerical value is a numerical value indicative of a previous answer of the particular patient included in the past answer data stored in said answer data storing means.

11. A patient terminal apparatus for use in a communication system for providing information of a medical doctor'"'"'s questions to patients, the communication system comprising a medical doctor terminal apparatus, said patient terminal apparatus, and a database server apparatus for storing question set data for the medical doctor'"'"'s questions to patients, said patient terminal apparatus, the medical doctor terminal apparatus and the database server apparatus being connected to each other through a communication network, said patient terminal apparatus comprising:

first interface means for establishing a network connection and data communication between the database server apparatus and said patient terminal apparatus via the communication network;

receiving means for receiving question set data from the database server apparatus, the question set data being dependent on a particular patient among a plurality of patients;

template storing means for storing template programs which correspond to predetermined forms used to present questions to be answered by a patient, the template programs are not dependent on a particular patient;

generating means for generating, upon receiving the question set data from said database server apparatus, question programs that create the forms which are dependent on a particular patient among a plurality of patients using a patient-independent template program from among the template programs stored in the template storing means so that patient-dependent question programs and forms are not transmitted through the communication network, the forms being created on the patient terminal by inserting the question set data received from said database server apparatus into the template programs, thereby retaining security of the questions to patients, the question programs being generated for providing medical doctor'"'"'s questions to patients;

displaying means for displaying questions for the medical doctor'"'"'s questions to patients by executing the question programs generated by said generating means;

entering means for entering answer data to the displayed questions; and

transmitting means for transmitting the entered answer data to the database server apparatus and storing the transmitted answer data in the database server apparatus; and

second interface means for terminating the network connection and data communication between the database server apparatus and said patient terminal apparatus,

wherein the patient dependent question programs are not transmitted through the communication network.

12. The patient terminal apparatus as claimed in claim 11, wherein each of the question set data includes data indicative of an answer form, and a question sentence.

13. The patient terminal apparatus as claimed in claim 12, wherein each of the question set data further includes data indicative of at least one selection sentence.

14. The patient terminal apparatus as claimed in claim 12, wherein each of the question set data further includes data indicative of a goal answer entered by a medical doctor.

15. The patient terminal apparatus as claimed in claim 11, further comprising answer data storing means for storing entered past answer data,

wherein said displaying means displays past answer data stored in said answer data storing means in conjunction with a question.

16. The patient terminal apparatus as claimed in claim 13, wherein said generating means comprises changing means for changing a display layout of the at least one selection sentence according to at least one of a number of selection sentences and a length of each selection sentence.

18. The patient terminal apparatus as claimed in claim 11,

wherein the template storing means stores template question programs which correspond to predetermined answer forms and are not dependent on a particular patient, and

wherein the generating means for generates question programs which are dependent on a particular patient among a plurality of patients, by inserting question set data received from said database server apparatus into the template question programs.

20. The patient terminal apparatus as claimed in claim 18, wherein the forms include at least one of:

(a) a first answer form for answering by selecting at least one among a plurality of selection sentences of answers as an answer to a question; and

(b) a second answer form for answering by using a numerical value as an answer to the question.

23. The patient terminal apparatus as claimed in claim 20, wherein the second answer form includes at least one of:

(a) a third answer form for answering by directly entering a numerical value as an answer to the question; and

(b) a fourth answer form for answering by entering a numerical value indicative of an answer with either one of increasing and decreasing a numerical value starting at an initial value as an answer to the question.

24. The patient terminal apparatus as claimed in claim 23, further comprising answer data storing means for storing entered past answer data,

wherein the initial value of the numerical value is a numerical value indicative of a previous answer of the particular patient included in the past answer data stored in said answer data storing means.