Computerized medical diagnostic and treatment advice system

Abstract

A system and method for providing computerized, knowledge-based medical diagnostic and treatment advice. The medical advice is provided to the general public over a telephone network. Two new authoring languages, interactive voice response and speech recognition are used to enable expert and general practitioner knowledge to be encoded for access by the public. “Meta” functions for time-density analysis of a number of factors regarding the number of medical complaints per unit of time are an integral part of the system. A semantic discrepancy evaluator routine along with a mental status examination are used to detect the consciousness level of a user of the system. A re-enter feature monitors the user's changing condition over time. A symptom severity analysis helps to respond to the changing conditions. System sensitivity factors may be changed at a global level or other levels to adjust the system advice as necessary.

1 . A medical diagnostic and treatment advise system for providing information to a patient, the system comprising: 
 a computer;    an input device, connected to the computer, to receive information from the patient;    an output device, connected to the computer, to provide information to the patient; and    at least one diagnostic code portion selectively executed based on at least a portion of the received information so as to provide a patient with a diagnosis, wherein at least one of the at least one diagnostic code portion accepts biometric data as an input.    
     
     
         2 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the biometric data comprises the results of laboratory tests.  
     
     
         3 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the biometric data comprises a blood sugar level.  
     
     
         4 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the biometric data comprises a patient's vital signs.  
     
     
         5 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the biometric data comprises blood pressure.  
     
     
         6 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the biometric data comprises temperature.  
     
     
         7 . The system of  claim 1 , further comprising a biometric measuring device configured to provide biometric data to at least one of the plurality of medical complaint algorithms.  
     
     
         8 . The system of  claim 7 , wherein the biometric measuring device provides biometric data to at least one of the plurality of medical complaint algorithms via a direct connection to the computer.  
     
     
         9 . A medical diagnostic and treatment advise system for providing information to a patient, the system comprising: 
 a computer;    an input device, connected to the computer, to receive information from the patient;    an output device, connected to the computer, to provide information to the patient; and    at least one diagnostic code portion selectively executed based on at least a portion of the received information so as to provide a patient with a diagnosis, wherein at least one of the at least one diagnostic code portion accepts an audio or video input.    
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 9 , wherein the audio or video input is a static image.  
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 9 , wherein the input device comprises a tele-stethoscope.  
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 9 , wherein the audio or video input comprises at least one of a heart murmur, a bruit, a wheeze, a cough, stridor, or a bowel sound.  
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 9 , wherein the audio or video input comprises a sound pattern represented as a two-dimensional array of time versus amplitude.  
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 9 , wherein the audio or video input comprises a spectrogram.  
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 9 , wherein the audio or video input is subjected to analysis by the medical complaint algorithm.  
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 15 , wherein the analysis comprises a transform.  
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 15 , wherein a first audio or video input received at a first time is compared to a second audio or video input received at a second time.