Method and System for Providing Information to Physicians

Abstract

A group of medical specialists reviews an up-to-date body of medical knowledge and, based on its review, selects a subset of that knowledge as being important enough to merit prompt dissemination to the medical community. The selected subset of medical knowledge is then input into a computer system where it can then be accessed by physicians over a computer network. A physician may, for example, access the system before, during or after a patients visit so that he/she can have the most up-to-date information regarding how to best advise the patient. In effect, the group of medical specialists acts as a single voice of authority on which the medical community can rely.

1 . A method of disseminating medical information to a plurality of physicians, the method comprising: a plurality of medical specialists performing steps comprising: reviewing medical knowledge, the medical knowledge comprising information regarding the diagnosis and treatment of patients, and, based on the reviewing step, selecting a subset of the knowledge as being worthy to disseminate;
 updating a computer system using the selected subset, the computer system being accessible by the plurality of physicians via a computer network, the computer system providing medical diagnosis and treatment information to the plurality of physicians.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising selecting the plurality of medical specialists based, at least in part, on their reputations in the medical profession. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the plurality of medical specialists comprises at least one physician from each major medical specialty. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising the computer system performing steps comprising: receiving, from a computer over a computer network, a request for data regarding the treatment and/or diagnosis of a medical condition;
 generating the data based, at least in part, on the updating step; and transmitting the data to the requesting computer.   
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the reviewing step comprises the plurality of medical specialists reviewing published articles from medical journals. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein each of the medical specialists has an area of expertise, and the reviewing step comprises each of the plurality of medical specialists reviewing articles that relate to his or her area of expertise. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 1 ˜wherein the reviewing step comprises the plurality of medical specialists reviewing recently authored medical literature. 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 7 , wherein the selecting step comprises disregarding recently authored medical literature that does not appear to merit dissemination. 
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising: establishing communication between the computer system and a client computer of a physician of the plurality of physicians; receiving, from the client computer, a log on; providing to the client computer a plurality of medical categories from which to select; receiving from the client computer, a selection of one of the plurality of categories; and providing to the client computer information relating to the selected category. 
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising: receiving, from one of the plurality of physicians via the computer network, information concerning a particular patient; interacting with the physician via a user interface; and providing to the physician a recommendation regarding the patient. 
     
     
         11 . A method for keeping a medical community up-to-date regarding the latest medical knowledge, the method comprising: selecting a plurality of leading physicians from the medical community; organizing the plurality of physicians into a governing board that performs steps comprising: reviewing new medical findings regarding the treatment and/or diagnosis of medical conditions, identifying which of the new findings should be disseminated to the medical community, and ensuring that a computer system is updated with the new findings; and receiving, from client computers via a computer network, requests for information regarding treatment and/or diagnosis of medical conditions, wherein the computer system analyzes the requests, generates responses to the requests, and transmits the responses to the client computers via the computer network. 
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 11 , further comprising updating a database of the computer system with the new findings, wherein the generating step comprises the computer system executing an algorithm for selecting a treatment and/or diagnosis of a medical condition by referring to the database and using, as input, information received in the requests from the client computers. 
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 11 , wherein the computer system is under the control of a medical knowledge service, and each of the client computers is located at a medical facility that has a subscription to the medical knowledge service. 
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 11 , wherein the computer system is under the control of a medical knowledge service, and at least one of the client computers is located at a physician's clinic that has a subscription to the medical knowledge service. 
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 11 , wherein the governing board includes physicians from each major medical-specialty. 
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 11 , wherein the governing board acts as a single voice for the medical community in deciding which new developments physicians need to know. 
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 11 , wherein the selecting step comprises selecting about 100 leading physicians in the medical community. 
     
     
         18 . A method for providing up-to-date medical information, the method comprising: a board of physicians reviewing a body of medical literature wherein the body of medical literature comprises works that contain medical information; the board of physicians determining, based on the review, which works of the body of medical literature should be disseminated to the medical community; a computer system receiving those works of medical literature that the board of physicians has determined should be disseminated to the medical community; the computer system storing those works of literature under a plurality of categories; a physician or an agent of the physician establishing communication with the computer system; the physician or the agent of the physician selecting a category of the plurality of categories; the physician or the agent of the physician requesting medical information relating to the selected category; and the physician or the agent of the physician receiving, in response to the request, one or more works of literature that the board of physicians determined should be disseminated to the medical community. 
     
     
         19 . The method of  claim 18 , further comprising, the physician or agent of the physician printing out at least a portion of at least one of the received works of literature and providing the printed portion to a patient. 
     
     
         20 . The method of  claim 18 , further comprising selecting a leading physician from every major medical specialty and organizing the selected physicians into the board. 
     
     
         21 . The method of  claim 18 , further comprising the board of physicians receiving at least part of the body of medical literature from government organizations, universities, hospitals and corporations. 
     
     
         22 . The method of  claim 18 , wherein the body of medical literature comprises articles from a plurality of medical journals. 
     
     
         23 - 25 . (canceled)