Get prep questions to ask doctor

• US 7,908,151 B2
• Filed: 09/28/2007
• Issued: 03/15/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 09/28/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Chitsaz, Behrooz, Oliver, Nuria M., Rosenbloom, Oren, Van Hoof, Hurbert, Sadovsky, Vladimir G., Argon, Pablo, Choing, Hong L., Hamilton, James R., Karkanias, Chris Demetrios, Heckerman, David E.
• Primary Examiner(s): GILLIGAN, CHRISTOPHER L
• Application Number:
  US11/864,599
• Publication Number:
  US 20090089082A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,264 Days
• Field of Search: 705/2, 705/3, 705/10, 600/300
• US Class Current: 705/2
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 10/20 for electronic clinical trials or questionnaires
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 30/20 for handling medical images, e.g. DICOM, HL7 or PACS
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 50/20 for computer-aided diagnosis, e.g. based on medical expert systems
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 70/60 relating to pathologies

Abstract

The claimed subject matter provides a system and/or a method that facilitates dynamically providing a question to ask a medical professional during an appointment. An interface can receive a portion of medical data. A counselor component can generate a question based on the portion of medical data, wherein the question is generated to elicit an answer from a medical professional during an appointment. Moreover, the counselor component can dynamically generate a second question directed toward the medical professional based upon at least one of the answer or a value of information (VOI) computation.

Claims

1. A computer implemented system that facilitates and effectuates dynamically providing questions for a patient to ask a medical professional during an appointment, comprising:

one or more processors;

an interface that receives a portion of medical data;

a counselor component, executable by the one or more processors, that;

generates a first question based on the portion of medical data and communicates the first question to the patient via the interface, wherein the first question is generated to elicit an answer from the medical professional during the appointment;

receives the answer; and

dynamically generates a second question directed toward the medical professional based on the answer; and

a reminder component, executable by the one or more processors, that sets a reminder based on the answer from the medical professional and communicates the reminder to the patient at a time after the appointment.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the portion of medical data is at least one of a diagnosis, a prognosis, a medical record, a symptom, a medical evaluation, a prior medical condition, a medical condition, a disease, a virus, a blood type, an allergy, a test result, a blood pressure reading, a heart rate, an x-ray, an MRI, a scan, a CAT scan, a blood work result, a medical chart, a reading from a medical device, or a portion of information from a medical facility.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein at least one of the counselor component or the interface are incorporated into a portable device that can communicate the first question to the patient, the portable device being at least one of a smartphone, a cell phone, a mobile communication device, a portable digital assistant (PDA), a laptop, a pocket PC, a desktop, a gaming device, a portable media player, a media device, a tablet PC, a handheld, a wireless browsing device, an electronic organizer, a gaming console, or a device with Internet connectivity.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the counselor component is incorporated into a cloud, the cloud being at least one resource that is maintained by a party and accessible by the patient over a network.

5. The system of claim 4, further comprising a device that receives the first question over the network.

6. The system of claim 1, further comprising an aggregator component that collects at least one of the answer from the medical professional or a statement from the medical professional in a standardized, uniform format.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the aggregator component establishes a data base including the standardized uniformly formatted data related to the at least one of the answer or the statement, the data base being leveraged by the counselor component for automatic question generation.

8. The system of claim 1, further comprising a log component that records at least one of the answer from the medical professional, a statement from the medical professional, a response from the medical professional, the first or second question posed to the medical professional, or a patient-defined question.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the counselor component is a self improving computing cloud that tracks and collects modifications to questions.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the counselor component enables the patient to edit the questions, wherein the edit is at least one of a deletion, a sorting of the questions, a re-arrangement order of the questions, a ranking of importance for the questions, or a re-phrasing of the questions.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the modifications are stored in the computing cloud for subsequent data mining and further improvements for question generation.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein the reminder relates to at least one of taking a medication, getting lab work done, an upcoming appointment, picking up a prescription, exercising, or following an instruction received from the medical professional during the appointment.

13. The system of claim 1, wherein the reminder is communicated to the patient with at least one of an email, a text message, a phone call, a cellular call, a mobile communication, a web alert, an instant message, or a web site posting.

14. The system of claim 1, wherein the counselor component receives the answer directly from the medical professional and utilizes a speech recognition process to comprehend the answer.

15. The system of claim 1, wherein the counselor component receives the answer indirectly from the medical professional via the patient.

16. A computer-implemented method that employs one or more processors to facilitate generating a question for an appointment with a medical professional, comprising:

receiving a portion of medical data associated with at least one of a patient or a diagnosis of the patient;

dynamically generating, via the one or more processors, a first question directed toward the medical professional for the patient to ask based at least on an analysis of the portion of medical data;

receiving an answer in response to the first question from the medical professional;

producing, via the one or more processors, a second question for the medical professional based on the answer;

setting, via the one or more processors, a reminder based on the answer; and

communicating the reminder to the patient at a time after the appointment is completed.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising utilizing a value of information (VOI) computation to generate at least one of the first question or the second question.

18. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

collecting at least one of a statement from the medical professional or the answer from the medical professional; and

standardizing the collection into a uniform format.

19. A computer implemented system comprising:

one or more processors;

an interface that receives medical data for a patient; and

a counselor component, executable by the one or more processors, that;

generates a plurality of questions based on the medical data and communicates the plurality of questions to the patient, wherein the plurality of questions are generated for the patient to elicit answers from a medical professional during an appointment;

enables the patient to rank the plurality of questions according to importance;

tracks the ranking of the plurality of questions and collects data associated with the ranking to store in a cloud computing environment for data mining and system improvements;

receives a first answer from the medical professional responsive to a first question asked by the patient; and

employs a value of information (VOI) computation to generate a second question based on the first answer.

20. The system of claim 19, further comprising a reminder component, executable by the one or more processors, that sets a reminder for the patient based on the first answer, and communicates the reminder to the patient at a later time after the appointment is completed, wherein the reminder relates to at least one of taking a medication, another upcoming appointment, picking up a prescription, exercising, or following an instruction received from the medical professional during the appointment.