“Health care professionals” is used broadly here to refer to anyone who participates in the diagnosis or treatment of medical problems. For example, medical doctors, dentists, nurses, nurse-practitioners, medical technologists, physical therapists, and other health workers that assist in examination of patients, diagnosis, or treatment are all included by this term.
A health care professional diagnoses an illness by collecting and evaluating information about the patient, then determining what disease or condition best fits the information. The information gathered from the patient usually is processed to reach a diagnosis by using a protocol learned during the professional's professional training and modified and updated by his or her medical experience. The protocol is an ordered process by which a health care professional ascertains information that allows the professional to rule out possible diseases until enough information is gathered to eliminate all but the diagnosed condition. Alternatively, the protocol may end when an appropriate treatment is identified. Recently, medical associations, health maintenance organizations, and hospitals, among others, have prescribed protocols. Employed health care professionals in particular are often subject to mandated protocols.
One problem in the field of medicine is how to improve diagnostic protocols to take into account advances in medical knowledge. A related problem is how to ensure that health care professionals update their skills to take advantage of advances in medical knowledge. Still another problem is how to expedite the diagnosis and treatment of certain conditions that should be treated quickly, so treatment can begin soon enough to be most effective.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,095,973 discloses a data processing system and method for evaluating the treatment of chest pain patients in a medical facility.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,029,138 discloses a decision support system for the selection of a diagnostic test or therapeutic intervention, which are both called “studies” in that patent.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,857,713 discloses a program for reducing hospital errors in the delivery of medications, goods, services or procedures in patient treatment.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,732,397 describes an automated system for use in decision-making processes, which is said to improve the quality and consistency of decisions made.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,772,585 discloses a common user interface to allow different medical personnel access to centralized files regarding patients.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,832,450 describes an electronic medical record system that stores data about individual patient encounters in a convenient form.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,845,255 describes an electronic prescription creation system for physician use that includes an adverse indication review and online access to comprehensive drug information including scientific literature.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,911,132 discloses diagnosing and treating patient diseases using a epidemiological database containing medical, personal or epidemiological data relevant to a presented set of symptoms, test results, a diagnosis, etc.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,915,240 discloses a context-sensitive medical lookup reference computer system for accessing medical information over a network.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,924,074 discloses a medical records system that is said to create and maintain all patient data electronically.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,953,704 discloses a system in which a user inputs information related to the health condition of an individual.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,022,315 discloses a system and method for providing computerized, knowledge-based medical diagnostic and treatment advice to the general public over a telephone network or a computer network.
There is currently a need in the medical field for a system that communicates to a health care professional carrying out a diagnosis that a certain symptom, combination of symptoms, or other patient information recorded by the physician is associated with an increased risk of a missed medical care opportunity leading to a less favorable patient outcome. (A “medical care opportunity” is defined as an opportunity to correctly or more quickly diagnose or treat the patient's condition and thus provide a better patient outcome.) Further, there is also a need in the medical field for a system for communicating to the health care professional special steps to take to avoid the missed medical care opportunity.