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 method of re-entering a diagnosis of a patient's medical problem in an automatic medical advice system, the method comprising: 
 collecting and storing patient information in a data storage of a computer by performing an initial diagnostic consultation with the patient;    in conjunction with the computer, and input and output devices in data communication with the computer, automatically identifying a situation wherein further diagnostic consultation of the patient is required at a later time;    collecting and storing additional patient information in the data storage by performing one or more additional diagnostic consultations with the patient;    computing a diagnosis from the collected patient information during one of the diagnostic consultations; and    outputting the diagnosis.    
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the system initiates additional diagnostic consultations with the patient at the later time.  
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the system instructs the patient to initiate additional diagnostic consultations at the later time.  
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein identifying the situation provides for monitoring symptoms of the patient over time.  
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein identifying the situation makes an identification when the system fails to make a diagnosis based on the stored patient information.  
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein identifying the situation makes an identification when a treatment associated with a diagnosis formulated by the initial diagnostic consultation is changed.  
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 1 , additionally comprising identifying the patient as a re-enter patient.  
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the additional diagnostic consultations are responsive to previous collected and stored patient information.  
     
     
         9 . A medical diagnostic and treatment advice system for providing information to a patient, the system comprising: 
 a computer;    a removable storage device reader, connected to the computer, configured to read and write patient information on a removable storage device;    an input device, connected to the computer, for receiving patient information from the patient;    an output device, connected to the computer, for providing patient information to the patient; and    a plurality of medical complaint algorithms selectively executed based on at least a portion of the patient information and providing medical advice, via the output device, particular to a medical condition as determined by at least one of the medical complain algorithms.    
     
     
         10 . The system of  claim 9 , wherein the removable storage device is a compact disc.  
     
     
         11 . The system of  claim 9 , wherein the removable storage device is a PCMCIA card.  
     
     
         12 . The system of  claim 9 , wherein the removable storage device is a flash memory.  
     
     
         13 . The system of  claim 9 , wherein the removable storage device is a data-storing card.