The present specification generally relates to systems and methods for assisting medical personnel in making medical decisions and, more specifically, to systems and methods that use an artificial intelligence system to assist medical personnel with making decisions relating to long term care, decisions that are based on promulgated medical guidelines, medical prescription decisions based on a particular insurance formulary, and/or the like.
Currently, when a subject is presented to medical personnel, a diagnosis may be made based on the medical personnel's medical knowledge. In addition, medical personnel may prescribe medication based solely on the medical personnel's knowledge of classes of drugs without any regard to what drugs are on a particular insurance formulary. Also, medical personnel may determine and provide treatment options based on one or more guidelines that are provided by a governing body and are known to the medical personnel. Such guidelines are based on data points from many past cases of a similar nature and are aimed at providing the best possible treatment to a subject without increasing the subject's risk of contracting a subsequent illness or injury that would require long term care (e.g., a stroke). However, it may be difficult for medical personnel to keep abreast on all guidelines, which are constantly changing.
Accordingly, a need exists for improved approaches to assist medical personnel in making decisions that will result in effective treatment of a subject, while also reducing potential long term care costs.
In one embodiment, a system includes one or more data capture devices for collecting captured data that indicates a medical condition of a subject. The system also includes one or more processors and one or more non-transitory memory modules communicatively coupled to the one or more processors and the one or more data capture devices. The memory modules store machine-readable instructions that, when executed, cause the one or more processors to receive the captured data and the image data from the one or more data capture devices. The processors are further caused to complete one or more decision-making processes by analyzing the captured data and the image data. The computing device is trained to analyze the captured data indicating the medical condition of the subject and the visual data pertaining to the at least one characteristic of the subject. The processors are further caused to generate at least one recommendation based on the one or more decision-making processes.
In another embodiment, a method for providing medical recommendations includes receiving, by a computing device, captured data indicating a medical condition of a subject and image data representing visual data pertaining to at least one characteristic of the subject from one or more data capture devices. The method also includes completing, by the computing device, one or more decision-making processes by analyzing the captured data and the image data. The computing device is trained to analyze the captured data indicating the medical condition of the subject and the visual data pertaining to the at least one characteristic of the subject. Finally, the method includes generating at least one recommendation based on the one or more decision-making processes.
In yet another embodiment, a non-transitory, computer-readable storage medium that is operable by a computer for providing medical recommendations is disclosed. The non-transitory, computer-readable storage medium includes one or more programming instructions stored thereon for causing a processing device to receive the captured data and the image data from the one or more data capture devices. The processors are further caused to complete one or more decision-making processes by analyzing the captured data and the image data. The computing device is trained to analyze the captured data indicating the medical condition of the subject and the visual data pertaining to the at least one characteristic of the subject. The processors are further caused to generate at least one recommendation based on the one or more decision-making processes.
These and additional features provided by the embodiments described herein will be more fully understood in view of the following detailed description, in conjunction with the drawings.
The embodiments set forth in the drawings are illustrative and exemplary in nature and not intended to limit the subject matter defined by the claims. The following detailed description of the illustrative embodiments can be understood when read in conjunction with the following drawings, where like structure is indicated with like reference numerals and in which:
The embodiments described herein are generally directed to systems and methods that obtain data regarding a subject, analyze the data to determine one or more medical issues, and provide one or more suggestions to medical personnel. The data obtained regarding the subject may be medical data, health data, insurance data, and/or the like. The suggestions may be a particular medication that is on a particular formulary of an insurance policy held by the subject, a suggested diagnosis, a suggested treatment plan, a suggested long term care plan, an update to medical guidelines, and/or the like. It should be understood that the present disclosure is not related to a particular field of medicine or medical discipline.
The user computing device 120 may be an interface between a user and the other components connected to the computer network 100, and/or various other components communicatively coupled to the user computing device 120 (such as components communicatively coupled via one or more networks to the user computing device 120, the one or more data capture devices 180, and/or the like), whether or not specifically described herein. Thus, the user computing device 120 may be used to perform one or more user-facing functions, such as receiving inputs from a user or providing information to the user. Additionally, in the event that the server computing device 140 requires updating, correction, and/or the like, the user computing device 120 may provide the desired updating, correction, and/or the like.
The server computing device 140 may receive electronic data and/or the like from one or more sources (e.g., the user computing device 120, the one or more data capture devices 180 and/or one or more databases). In addition, the server computing device 140 may direct operation of one or more other devices (e.g., the one or more data capture devices 180 and/or the user computing device 120), receive data (e.g., from the one or more data capture devices 180 and/or the user computing device 120), provide treatment suggestions, provide long term care suggestions, provide medication suggestions, generate new medical guidelines, update old medical guidelines, and/or the like.
The AI computing device 160 may be a machine that has been particularly configured and trained to parse and analyze data, determine possible diagnoses, treatment options, long term care options, on-formulary medication prescription medications, and/or the like. Some AI computing devices 160 may be maintained by a third party (i.e., a party that does not maintain the various components of the system 100 described herein). Illustrative examples of systems/platforms that may provide the AI computing devices 160 may include, but are not limited to, IBM Watson® (including Watson Analytics™ and/or Watson Health™) (International Business Machines Corp., Armonk, N.Y.), Microsoft® Azure® Data Lake Analytics (Microsoft Corp., Redmond, Wash.), Google Analytics™ and Google Assistant (Alphabet, Inc., Mountain View, Calif.). Other systems/platforms that may provide the AI computing devices 160 should generally be understood.
It should be understood that while the user computing device 120 may be a personal computer, and the server computing device 140 may be a server, these are non-limiting examples. More specifically, some embodiments may be configured with any type of computing device (e.g., mobile computing device, personal computer, server, etc.) to perform the described functionality. Additionally, while each of these computing devices is illustrated in
It should also be understood that while the embodiments depicted herein refer to a network of computing devices, the present disclosure is not solely limited to such a network. For example, the various processes described herein may be completed by a single computing device, such as a non-networked computing device or a networked computing device that does not use the network to complete the various processes described herein.
The one or more data capture devices 180 are not limited by this disclosure, and may generally be any device that can capture data that can be used for the purposes of analyzing a subject's medical condition. In some embodiments, the one or more data capture devices 180 may include a camera, such as a smartphone camera that is integrated with the user computing device 120. Such a camera can be used to capture image data that is used to obtain information. The image data represents visual data pertaining to at least one characteristic of a patient. For example, a camera may capture an electrocardiogram (ECG) screen that is used to obtain ECG data. In another example, a camera may be used to capture an image of a rash on a subject's skin, which may be used to obtain symptom data. In another example, a camera may provide a digital data feed whereby images of a target object are continuously captured and transmitted. In some embodiments, the one or more data capture devices may be electronic monitoring devices, such as, for example, a fluid pump, a blood pressure cuff, a pulse oximeter, an x-ray machine, a computed tomography scan machine, and/or the like. Such data capture devices capture specific data regarding a subject and transmit the data for analysis as described herein.
While a single data capture device 180 is depicted herein, the number of data capture devices is not limited by this disclosure and may generally be any number thereof. In a non-limiting example, a plurality of data capture devices 180 may be used to capture various types of data regarding a particular subject, or to capture data of a plurality of subjects at substantially the same time.
A bus 201 may interconnect the various components. A processing device 205, such as a computer processing unit (CPU), may be the central processing unit of the computing device, performing calculations and logic operations to execute a program. The processing device 205, alone or in conjunction with the other components, is an illustrative processing device, computing device, processor, or combination thereof. Memory 210, such as read only memory (ROM) and/or random access memory (RAM), may constitute an illustrative memory device and/or a non-transitory processor-readable storage medium. The memory 210 may include one or more programming instructions thereon that, when executed by the processing device 205, cause the processing device 205 to complete various processes, such as the processes described herein. In some embodiments, the program instructions may be stored on a tangible computer-readable medium that may be removable, such as a compact disc, a digital disk, flash memory, a memory card, a USB drive, an optical disc storage medium, such as a Blu-ray™ disc, and/or other non-transitory processor-readable storage media. Similarly, the program instructions stored on the memory 210 may be embodied as a plurality of software logic modules, where each logic module provides programming instructions for completing one or more tasks, as described in greater detail hereinbelow with respect to
A storage device 250, which may generally be a storage medium, may contain one or more data repositories for storing data that is used for storing data that is received (regardless of where the data is received from). The storage device 250 may be any physical storage medium, including, but not limited to, a hard disk drive (HDD), memory, removable storage, and/or the like. While the storage device 250 is depicted as a local device, it should be understood that the storage device 250 may be a remote storage device, such as, for example, a server computing device or the like (e.g., the server computing device 140 of
Still referring to
A system interface 235 may generally cause the computing device to interface with one or more of the components of the computer network 100 (
A communications interface 245 may generally cause the computing device to interface with one or more external components, such as, for example, an external computing device, a remote server, and/or the like. Communication with external devices may occur using various communication ports (not shown). An illustrative communication port may be attached to a communications network, such as the Internet, an intranet, a local network, a direct connection, and/or the like.
In some embodiments, the program instructions contained on the memory 210 may be embodied as a plurality of software modules, where each module provides programming instructions for completing one or more tasks. For example,
Alternatively, as shown in
It should be understood that the components illustrated in
At step 310, the collected data may be transmitted to the AI computing device 160. At step 315, the data may be analyzed by the AI computing device 160. Additionally, the AI computing device 160 may also complete one or more decision-making processes at step 320. Illustrative examples of decision-making processes may include, but are not limited to, determining current or future health risks for the subject, assisting in confirming diagnoses, recommending medication classes, and/or the like. These tasks may be completed as often as necessary. For example, the processes may be continuously completed as new data regarding the subject is received. In another example, the AI computing device 160 may analyze the medical data, calculate a risk of a potential complication for each potential treatment program, access a guidelines database to determine whether any guidelines exists, search for clinical trials, and provide one or more treatment programs. In addition, the AI computing device 160 may query one or more additional sources of additional data, literature, or the like to obtain additional information that may be used for providing an accurate recommendation. The AI computing device 160 may be particularly trained to determine health risks and potential treatment programs based on the guidelines that have been established by a governing body (e.g., a professional organization) for the purposes of treating a particular illness or injury and/or additional discovered data, while avoiding potential side effects or future illnesses (e.g., stroke). The AI computing device 160 may also provide assistance in diagnosing certain conditions (e.g., AFIB) by confirming possible diagnoses and/or by suggesting potential diagnoses. It should be appreciated that the AI computing device 160 is particularly trained, and therefore is capable of analyzing significantly more data to arrive at a recommendation in a shorter period of time than when compared to conventional techniques that are presently available. As a result, the systems and methods described herein improve the functionality of the various computing devices described herein by allowing them to analyze data more quickly and to arrive at a recommendation in a shorter period of time.
At step 325, the AI computing device 160 may generate recommendations. Recommendations can include the decisions described above and/or recommended medication classes to prescribe recommended potential surgical procedures, recommended therapy aids, recommended monitoring devices, recommended clinical trials, and/or the like. Recommended medication classes may be general classes or specific classes, and may also account for particular insurance formularies and/or practitioners so as to provide the most economical medication recommendations. Recommended clinical trials may be clinical trials or other related programs that are available from registries such as the PINNACLE registry (American College of Cardiology).
The recommendations may be provided to a user at step 330. More specifically, in one embodiment the user may be one or more treatment personnel such as, for example, nurse practitioners, doctors, and/or the like. The recommendations are generally consistent with the guidelines and provide a map framework to treatment personnel for carrying out treatment that is consistent with the guidelines. In one embodiment, the recommendations may be continuously updated and provided to treatment personnel as additional data is received regarding the patient, new guidelines are promulgated, and/or the like.
At step 335, recommendations for updating old guidelines or creating new guidelines based on information that is analyzed may be provided. More specifically, if a guideline predates new data, then a recommendation may be generated for updating the guideline. It should be appreciated that step 335 is optional, and may be omitted in some embodiments.
Referring generally to the figures, the disclosed systems and methods calculate medical recommendations in a non-conventional manner by based on data collected by one or more data capture devices. More specifically, the AI computing device 160 of the system is particularly trained to analyze the data collected by the data capture devices. As mentioned above, the data capture devices may be, but are not limited to, cameras and electronic monitoring devices (e.g., fluid pump, a blood pressure cuff, a pulse oximeter, and the like). Conventional approaches to diagnose a subject may be based solely on the classes of drugs and/or guidelines provided by a governing body that are known by a medical professional. However, sometimes it is difficult to quickly provide an accurate diagnosis based on the limited information known by medical personnel since the guidelines and drug information are in a constant state of flux. In contrast, the disclosed system provides a technical solution to address the issue of constantly changing data by providing a computing system that is trained to parse and analyze data, determine possible diagnoses, treatment options, long term care options, on-formulary medication prescription medications, and/or the like based on artificial intelligence techniques.
It is noted that the terms “substantially” and “about” may be utilized herein to represent the inherent degree of uncertainty that may be attributed to any quantitative comparison, value, measurement, or other representation. These terms are also utilized herein to represent the degree by which a quantitative representation may vary from a stated reference without resulting in a change in the basic function of the subject matter at issue.
While particular embodiments have been illustrated and described herein, it should be understood that various other changes and modifications may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the claimed subject matter. Moreover, although various aspects of the claimed subject matter have been described herein, such aspects need not be utilized in combination. It is therefore intended that the appended claims cover all such changes and modifications that are within the scope of the claimed subject matter.
The present application claims priority to U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 62/458,977, filed Feb. 14, 2017 and entitled “Systems and Methods for Continuously Monitoring a Temperature of An Electrical Supply System,” which is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.
Number | Date | Country | |
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62458977 | Feb 2017 | US |