초록 ▼

Patient disease is diagnosed and/or treated using electronic data communications between not only the physician and his/her patient, but via the use of electronic data communications between the physician and one or more entities which can contribute to the patient\s diagnosis and/or treatment, such

Patient disease is diagnosed and/or treated using electronic data communications between not only the physician and his/her patient, but via the use of electronic data communications between the physician and one or more entities which can contribute to the patient\s diagnosis and/or treatment, such electronic data communications including information that was priorly received electronically from the patient and/or was developed as a consequence of an electronic messaging interaction that occurred between the patient and the physician. Such other entities illustratively include a medical diagnostic center and an epidemiological database computer facility which collects epidemiological transaction records from physicians, hospitals and other institutions which have medical facilities, such as schools and large businesses. The epidemiological transaction record illustratively includes various medical, personal and epidemiological data relevant to the patient and his/her present symptoms, including test results, as well as the diagnosis, if one has already been arrived at by the e-doc. The epidemiological database computer facility can correlate this information with the other epidemiological transaction records that it receives over time in order to help physicians make and/or confirm diagnoses as well as to identify and track epidemiological events and/or trends.

대표청구항 ▼

A method for use by a medical office, said method comprising the steps of receiving from a patient a description of medical symptoms experienced by that patient, creating, and storing in a memory of a computer, a patient transaction record, said patient transaction record including symptom informati

A method for use by a medical office, said method comprising the steps of receiving from a patient a description of medical symptoms experienced by that patient, creating, and storing in a memory of a computer, a patient transaction record, said patient transaction record including symptom information indicative of medical symptoms described by said patient, transmitting to a medical testing facility a first outgoing electronic data communication which specifies at least one selected diagnostic test to be performed on said patient, said one diagnostic test being selected in response to at least a first portion of the medical symptoms stored in said memory, receiving from said medical testing facility a first incoming electronic data communication which includes results of said at least one diagnostic test, adding said test results to said patient transaction record stored in said memory, and communicating to said patient information describing a selected course of medical treatment, said course of medical treatment being selected in response to at least a second portion of the information in said patient transaction record, said second portion including said test results and said symptom information.