System for maintenance and management of health

• US 6,735,551 B2
• Filed: 12/20/2002
• Issued: 05/11/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 06/22/2000
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Fredrick J. Mindermann, Fridolin Voegeli
• Original Assignee: Fredrick J. Mindermann, Fridolin Voegeli
• Inventors: Voegeli, Fridolin, Mindermann, Fredrick J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Assouad, Patrick
• Application Number:
  US10/312,317
• Publication Number:
  US 20030101078A1
• Time in Patent Office: 508 Days
• Field of Search: 702/183, 702/188, 705/2, 705/3, 600/301, 600/300, 128/920, 128/923, 128/924, 128/925
• US Class Current: 702/183
• 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: 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 20/70 relating to mental therapies, e.g. psychological therapy or autogenous training
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/67 for remote operation
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 70/20 relating to practices or guidelines
• 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: Y10S 128/92 Computer assisted medical diagnostics

Abstract

The present invention relates to a Mobile Tele-Medical Maintenance system (MTMM system) that applies different IT methods to perform different functions for the tele-medical maintenance of large numbers of individuals. The MTMM system includes a system kernel residing on web servers, linked to a large number of peripheral units on the individuals. The kernel contains a collection of all the “Private Medical Web Sites” and “Personal Health Plans” of the individuals. The MTMM system periphery includes walk-in care offices and intelligent physiological sensors that can communicate directly with the kernel'"'"'s programs via the Internet or similar communication networks, preferably using the user'"'"'s phone and its traditional interfaces, message display plus message voice, and push-button plus voice input. The system kernel controls the actuators directly in the periphery and uses message display and message voice output of the telephone to interact with the individual.

Claims

1. A system for maintenance and management of health for large numbers of individual patients, the system comprising:

(a) a condition monitoring device, having alarm signals, that measures physiological data on a patient, and transmits, enters, and stores the data as event information of the patient into a Condition Log;

(b) a supervision device that assesses the alarm signals and event information, wherein the supervision device transmits the alarm signals and event information to caregivers, allowing the caregivers to initiate a corrective action on the patient and to request a report about the corrective action and its results, the report being entered and stored into a Shift Log;

(c) an evaluating device, that evaluates problems and patterns of measurements by comparing the problems and patterns with accumulated information in a knowledge database, wherein the evaluating device thereafter selects the appropriate corrective action to be recommended to the caregivers, requests a report of the caregivers about the corrective action and its results, and enters the report into the knowledge database, whereby the knowledge database accumulates and enlarges, and;

(d) a communication system that connects to a system for transmitting alarms and recommendations to a supervisor, whereby the supervisor corrects and releases the alarms and recommendations, and the alarms and recommendations are transmitted further to the caregivers for performing a recommended action.

2. A system according to claim 1, wherein the communication system further comprises at least one device for Internet access.

3. A system according to claim 1, wherein the communication system further comprises at least one sensor for measuring the physiological data on the patient.

4. A system according to claim 1, wherein the system further comprises a Medical Web Site, the Medical Web Site containing a separate database containing all medical data and a medical history of each individual patient, the database being accessible by the patient and the caregivers.

5. A system according to claim 1, wherein the system further comprises a Personal Health Plan Manager Module, the Personal Health Plan Manager Module being attached to monitored data, compliance for therapies, and outcome of the therapies, and wherein the Personal Health Plan Manager Module is accessible by the patient and the caregivers.

6. A system according to claim 1, wherein the system further comprises a Log Manager Module, and wherein the Log Manager Module monitors the alarm signals and the event information in the Condition Log and supervises the reports in the Shift Log.

7. A system according to claim 1, wherein the system further comprises a Diagnostic Manager Module, wherein the Diagnostic Manager Module diagnoses the condition of the individual patient by comparing data stored in expert computer programs containing diagnosis guidelines to the accumulated data of the knowledge database.

8. A system according to claim 2, wherein the communication system contains at least one device selected from the group consisting of:

Internet accessible mobile telephones, personal digital assistants, and personal computers.

9. A system according to claim 5, wherein the Personal Health Plan Manager Module contains a type of data selected from the group consisting of:

doctor'"'"'s prescriptions for medication;

treatments, practices, and lifestyles of the individual patient;

a schedule for the monitoring of conditions stored in the Condition Log;

selection of sensors to be used;

threshold values of the physiological data to be monitored; and

corrective actions.