DISEASE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM AND METHOD INCLUDING PREVIEW MODE

• US 20080052123A1
• Filed: 10/31/2007
• Published: 02/28/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 03/13/1997
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Healthways SC, LLC (Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Clinical Decision Support, LLC (Tivity Health, Inc.)
• Inventors: Iliff, Edwin
• Granted Patent: US 8,392,217 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/2
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 10/20 for electronic clinical trials or questionnaires
• 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 20/10 relating to drugs or medications, e.g. for ensuring correct administration to patients
• 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: G16H 50/30 for calculating health indices; for individual health risk assessment
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 70/20 relating to practices or guidelines
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 70/60 relating to pathologies
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 80/00 ICT specially adapted for facilitating communication between medical practitioners or patients, e.g. for collaborative diagnosis, therapy or health monitoring
• 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 128/925 Neural network

Abstract

A system and method for allowing a patient to access an automated process for managing a specified health problem called a disease. The system performs disease management in a fully automated manner, using periodic interactive dialogs with the patient to obtain health state measurements from the patient, to evaluate and assess the progress of the patient'"'"'s disease, to review and adjust therapy to optimal levels, and to give the patient medical advice for administering treatment and handling symptom flare-ups and acute episodes of the disease. The medical records are updated, the progression of the disease is stored and tracked, and the patient'"'"'s preferences for treatment are stored and then used to offer medical advice based on the current state of the disease. A prestored general disease trend curve is compared against a patient specific disease trend curve, and the system makes an automated response such as adjusting therapy.

Claims

1. A computerized system in a computing environment comprising a preview mode function that clarifies an impact of a question, the system comprising:

a computing device configured to compute an automated therapy adjustment for a patient; and

a preview mode used by the computing device that allows a user to look ahead to preview a hypothetical result of answering one or more prestored questions.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the hypothetical result of answering one or more prestored questions informs the user of consequences or medical recommendations.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the consequences comprise contacting a health care professional or emergency personnel.

4. The system of claim 2, wherein the medical recommendations comprise a new treatment or a modified dosage of an existing treatment.

5. The system of claim 1, further comprising an explicit warning in the preview mode that warns the user that serious consequences may result from answering a question.

6. An automated look ahead method of providing questions to a medical user and receiving responses, the method comprising:

displaying for a user a question and a set of response choices;

displaying for the user an option to look ahead in a session;

receiving a response from the user from the set of response choices and from the option to look ahead; and

outputting preview information when the user elects the option to look ahead.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein electing the option to look ahead comprises an oral or written preview of health assessment information or therapy optimization information.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein health assessment information identifies one or more consequences related to an answer of the user.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein therapy optimization information comprises modifying an existing prescription for a disease.

10. A computer usable medium having computer readable program code embodied therein for allowing a user to preview the computer program'"'"'s responses or recommendations, the computer readable code comprising instructions for:

displaying one or more questions to a user of an automated medical computer program; and

displaying an option for the user to skip ahead to preview the consequences that would result from a hypothetical answer to at least one provided question.

11. The computer usable medium of claim 10, wherein the skip ahead option comprises an indicator flag for informing the user of an ability to learn an impact or focus of at least one of the one or more displayed questions.

12. The computer usable medium of claim 10, further comprising receiving a selection from the user to skip ahead using the skip ahead option to view recommendations for the one or more displayed questions.

13. The computer usable medium of claim 10, further comprising processing an answer to one or more provided questions without previewing what consequences will result from the answer.

14. An automated system comprising a computing device for interactions with a medical user, the system comprising:

a computing device with a software function for interacting with a user through questions and answers; and

an indicator corresponding to the questions, wherein the indicator allows the user to change a response to a question after the user learns a recommendation or consequence of the user'"'"'s response.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the indicator comprises a flag corresponding to a question.

16. The system of claim 14, wherein the indicator comprises a written or oral comment that reminds the user of an ability to learn an impact or focus of a question.

17. The system of claim 14, wherein the indicator comprises a selection element in the software function that allows the user to change an answer based on information learned from the software function.

18. The system of claim 14, wherein the user comprises a patient, an agent of the patient, or a health care professional.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the patient is a human being in need of wellness care.

20. A computerized preview mode method, comprising:

setting a preview mode for a medical script;

asking a question related to the health of a patient;

allowing the patient to receive information relating to a consequence of having answered the question; and

resetting the medical script as if the question had not been answered.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein the consequence of having answered the question comprises an oral or written preview of health assessment information or therapy optimization information.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein health assessment information comprises analyzing health measurements provided by the patient.

23. The method of claim 21, wherein therapy optimization information comprises modifying an existing prescription for a disease.

24. The method of claim 20, wherein the consequence of having answered the question comprises contacting a medical health professional.

25. The method of claim 20, wherein the consequence of having answered the question comprises a recommendation from an automated medical system for medical treatment.