Patent Application
20110161103
This disclosure generally relates to systems and methods for providing electronic medical support. More particularly, an electronic medical support system requests information regarding a patient and generates a medical impression, probability of correct diagnosis, and/or a treatment plan.
Non-limiting and non-exhaustive embodiments of the disclosure are described, including various embodiments of the disclosure with reference to the figures, in which:
In the following description, numerous specific details are provided for a thorough understanding of the various embodiments disclosed herein. The systems and methods disclosed herein can be practiced without one or more of the specific details, or with other methods, components, materials, etc. In addition, in some cases, well-known structures, materials, or operations may not be shown or described in detail in order to avoid obscuring aspects of the disclosure. Furthermore, the described features, structures, or characteristics may be combined in any suitable manner in one or more alternative embodiments.
The present disclosure provides systems and methods for medical practitioners to systematically generate medical impressions and potential treatment plans. According to various embodiments, the electronic medical support system allows practitioners to take advantage of the vast amount of medical information available electronically. According to the variously described embodiments, the system is specifically adapted to meet the unique needs of the medical practice. Accordingly, the present systems and methods avoid cumbersome processes that would otherwise unduly constrain medical practitioners.
In addition to basic charting operations and historical record collecting, an electronic medical support system may be configured to guide a practitioner from an initial patient complaint to a medical impression and/or potential treatment plans. Accordingly, various embodiments of the present system and method separate pertinent medical information from non-pertinent information and present it to a practitioner in a systematic manner.
According to various embodiments, an electronic medical support system may improve patient care, provide organized recordkeeping, improve billing efficiency, allow for more accurate and/or faster diagnoses, and facilitate in the creation of electronic medical records.
According to various embodiments, an electronic medical support system is configured to display information to a practitioner, receive input from the practitioner, and analyze the information provided by the practitioner in order to determine a medical impression and/or treatment plan. According to various embodiments, the electronic medical support system may be embodied in a software program accessed locally, via an intranet, and/or on the Internet.
According to some embodiments, a practitioner is presented with the option of selecting one or more examination templates relating to the chief complaint of a patient. Each of the examination templates may include a number of examination steps intended to guide a practitioner. Alternatively, a practitioner may input the chief complaint(s) and the electronic medical support system may automatically select one or more corresponding examination template. According to various embodiments, if multiple examination templates are selected, the electronic medical support system may merge the selected templates in order to eliminate redundant examination steps.
The electronic medical support system may then request and/or retrieve relevant medical history and present examination steps to be performed by the practitioner. Based on the input received from the practitioner regarding the various examination steps, additional examination steps may be provided, diagnostic steps may be provided, and/or the examination may conclude. After completing the relevant examination steps and/or diagnostic steps the electronic medical support system may analyze the inputs received, potentially in light of the medical history of the patient, and determine a medical impression and/or treatment plan.
According to various embodiments, an examination template may include any number of examination steps. The examination steps may range from simple questions to a request that a practitioner perform a specific examination and input information regarding the results of the examination. According to various embodiments, an answer to an examination step may result in additional related or dependent examination steps.
According to various embodiments, a clinic clue may be associated with an examination step. Clinical clues may provide insights, instructions, definitions, or guidance relating to a specific examination step. For instance, a clinic clue may present a short video guiding a practitioner on how to perform a specific examination or provide example pictures or photographs of what is meant by an examination step. Clinic clues may take the form of text, audio, video, photographs, drawings, and/or combinations thereof.
Reference throughout this specification to “one embodiment” or “an embodiment” means that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic described in connection with the embodiment is included in at least one embodiment. Thus, the appearances of the phrases “in one embodiment” or “in an embodiment” in various places throughout this specification are not necessarily all referring to the same embodiment. In particular, an “embodiment” may be a system, an article of manufacture (such as a computer-readable storage medium), a method, and a product of a process.
The term “medical impression”, “impression”, and variations thereof as used herein should be understood as commonly used in the medical fields. By way of example, a medical impression may comprise a medical examiner's diagnosis, assessment, first impression, and/or immediate impression of a medical problem, disease, issue, or other condition. As used herein a medical impression may be substantially equivalent to a medical diagnosis. Alternatively, a medical impression may be akin to an informed guess, while a medical diagnosis may be a conclusion or intermediate conclusion based on a medical practitioner's weighing of the signs, evaluations, symptoms, and/or test results.
The term “practitioner” as used herein may encompass any user of an electronic medical support system. Specifically, the term practitioner may include, but is not limited to, assistants, doctors, medical professionals, nurses, medical staff, secretaries, physician assistants, nurse practitioners, and the like. According to various embodiments, an electronic medical support system may be adapted for use by practitioners having a specific level of medical training. For example, a system may be adapted for use by medical professionals with a relatively high level of training, or alternatively for use by laypersons having little or no training. Accordingly, the term practitioner may encompass those having sufficient skill to perform the examination steps presented by a particular adaptation of an electronic medical support system.
The phrases “connected to” and “in communication with” refer to any form of interaction between two or more components, including mechanical, electrical, magnetic, and electromagnetic interaction. Two components may be connected to each other even though they are not in direct contact with each other and even though there may be intermediary devices between the two components.
Some of the infrastructure that can be used with embodiments disclosed herein is already available, such as: general-purpose computers, computer programming tools and techniques, digital storage media, and communications networks. A computer may include a processor such as a microprocessor, microcontroller, logic circuitry, or the like. The processor may include a special purpose processing device such as an ASIC, PAL, PLA, PLD, Field Programmable Gate Array, or other customized or programmable device. The computer may also include a computer-readable storage device such as non-volatile memory, static RAM, dynamic RAM, ROM, CD-ROM, disk, tape, magnetic, optical, flash memory, or other computer-readable storage medium.
Suitable networks for configuration and/or use as described herein include one or more local area networks, wide area networks, metropolitan area networks, and/or “Internet” or internet protocol (IP) networks, such as the World Wide Web, a private Internet, a secure Internet, a value-added network, a virtual private network, an extranet, an intranet, or even standalone machines which communicate with other machines by physical transport of media. In particular, a suitable network may be formed from parts or entireties of two or more other networks, including networks using disparate hardware and network communication technologies. A network may incorporate landlines, wireless communication, and combinations thereof.
The network may include communications or networking software, such as software available from Novell, Microsoft, Artisoft, and other vendors, and may operate using TCP/IP, SPX, IPX, and other protocols over twisted pair, coaxial, or optical fiber cables, telephone lines, satellites, microwave relays, modulated AC power lines, physical media transfer, and/or other data transmission “wires” known to those of skill in the art. The network may encompass smaller networks and/or be connectable to other networks through a gateway or similar mechanism.
Various input devices and/or output devices may be utilized in conjunction with the presently describe electronic medical support system. Exemplary input devices include, but are not limited to, a keyboard, mouse, touch screen, light pen, tablet, microphone, sensor, or other hardware with accompanying firmware and/or software. Exemplary output devices include, but are not limited to, a monitor or other display, printer, switch, signal line, or other hardware with accompanying firmware and/or software.
The embodiments of the disclosure will be best understood by reference to the drawings, wherein like parts are designated by like numerals throughout. It will be readily understood that the components of the disclosed embodiments, as generally described and illustrated in the figures herein, could be arranged and designed in a wide variety of different configurations. Thus, the following detailed description of the embodiments of the systems and methods of the disclosure is not intended to limit the scope of the disclosure, as claimed, but is merely representative of possible embodiments of the disclosure. In addition, the steps of a method do not necessarily need to be executed in any specific order, or even sequentially, nor need the steps be executed only once, unless otherwise specified.
Aspects of certain embodiments described herein may be implemented as software modules or components. As used herein, a software module or component may include any type of computer instruction or computer executable code located within or on a computer-readable storage medium. A software module may, for instance, comprise one or more physical or logical blocks of computer instructions, which may be organized as a routine, program, object, component, data structure, etc., that performs one or more tasks or implements particular abstract data types.
In certain embodiments, a particular software module may comprise disparate instructions stored in different locations of a computer-readable storage medium, which together implement the described functionality of the module. Indeed, a module may comprise a single instruction or many instructions, and may be distributed over several different code segments, among different programs, and across several computer-readable storage media. Some embodiments may be practiced in a distributed computing environment where tasks are performed by a remote processing device linked through a communications network. In a distributed computing environment, software modules may be located in local and/or remote computer-readable storage media. In addition, data being tied or rendered together in a database record may be resident in the same computer-readable storage medium, or across several computer-readable storage media, and may be linked together in fields of a record in a database across a network.
The software modules described herein tangibly embody a program, functions, and/or instructions that are executable by computer(s) to perform tasks as described herein. Suitable software, as applicable, may be provided using the teachings presented herein and programming languages and tools, such as XML, Java, Pascal, C++, C, database languages, APIs, SDKs, assembly, firmware, microcode, and/or other languages and tools. Additionally, software, firmware, and hardware may be interchangeably used to implement a given function.
In some cases, well-known features, structures or operations are not shown or described in detail. Furthermore, the described features, structures, or operations may be combined in any suitable manner in one or more embodiments. It will also be readily understood that the components of the embodiments as generally described and illustrated in the figures herein could be arranged and designed in a wide variety of different configurations.
In the following description, numerous details are provided to give a thorough understanding of various embodiments; however, the embodiments disclosed herein can be practiced without one or more of the specific details, or with other methods, components, materials, etc. In other instances, well-known structures, materials, or operations are not shown or described in detail to avoid obscuring aspects of this disclosure.
As illustrated, system 100 may include a home screen 102, which may present various navigation options within system 100. For example, home screen 102 may allow navigation to various screens such as group management 103, patient management 104, examination template management 106, patient billing 108, patient examinations 110, and/or additional management screens. From home screen 102, the practitioner may select an option to perform a particular task or perform a search within one or more modules within system 100.
Using group management screen 103, a practitioner may create or view lists of various groups entered into system 100. Groups may be based on one or more shared characteristics. For example, a group may be created based on the billing requirements of a health insurance provider. A particular health insurance provider may have specific requirements such as billing, reporting, claims, forms, and/or the like that may be implemented by system 100 in an automated manner. According to various embodiments, groups may be automatically generated or manually created based on shared characteristics. Additionally, patients, conditions, insurance providers, and/or other managed elements of the system may be included in more than one group.
Groups may provide simplicity in management, form completion, search functionalities, and/or reminders. For example, according to various embodiments, system 100 may remind patients having a common condition to schedule treatments to manage the condition. Groups may be organized based on a wide range of criteria. Certain groups may be automatically populated, while other groups may be manually populated. Patients may be members of a plurality of groups.
Within group management screen 103 groups may be created, at 112, or organized, at 114. Group information may be input within input group information screen 128. Such information may include billing requirements, contact information, EMR format, and the like.
Organize groups screen 114 may allow a practitioner to manually assign patients to a group based on a specified set of criteria. Groups may be organized for temporary purposes or may be permanently assigned for continual management. For example, an automatically populated group may be created to include those patients who may meet a specified condition, such as a required vaccination. Once those patients are treated, the temporary group may be dissolved.
Within patient management screen 104, patient information may be input, at 130, within create patient profile screen 116. Additionally, edit patient profile screen 118 may allow a patient profile to be updated, edited, and/or augmented. According to various embodiments, input patient information screen 130 may allow for a wide variety of information to be entered, including the patient's contact information, medical history, billing information, medications, allergies, medical history, family history, and the like.
Examination template management screen 106 may allow a practitioner to create and examination template, at 120, or edit an existing examination template, at 122. In one embodiment, the examination templates are organized according to the chief complaint given by a patient. For example, a chief complaint may come in the form of a localized pain or difficulty breathing, walking, supporting weight, or sleeping.
According to various embodiments, as described in greater detail below, system 100 may be configured to prompt a practitioner to perform a specific task or examination and provide relevant feedback. In this way, the examination templates may serve to standardize both the procedure of performing a patient examination and the process of creating an electronic medical record. Input template information screen 136 may be used to create a new examination template.
Within patient billing screen 108, a practitioner may proceed to a create bill screen 132 or to edit bill screen 134. In creating a bill, system 100 may utilize information relating to the groups to which the patient belongs. For example, bills for all patients insured by a particular insurance company may be generated in compliance with the insurance company's requirements. As another example, reporting to government agencies and statistical gathering organizations may be performed automatically and/or anonymously. Using edit bill screen 134, one or more bills may be manually edited, updated, and/or augmented.
According to various embodiments, patient billing screen 108, and its sub-screens, may provide user interfaces to various underlying billing modules relying on additional information and/or databases not within system 100. According to some embodiments, patient billing screen 108 provides a user interface to a separate, possibly pre-existing, billing system utilized by the user or users of system 100.
Patient examination screen 110 may allow a medical practitioner to access a list of patient examinations, at 124, or to perform a patient examination, at 126. According to various embodiments, the results of previously completed examinations may be reviewed and/or accessed via patient examination screen 110. According to various embodiments, Group management 103, patient management 104, examination template management 106, and patient billing 108 provide necessary support and initialization for patient examination 110. Patient examination 110 may utilize information throughout system 100 in order to aid a practitioner in systematically developing a medical impression and/or a treatment plan.
At 210, the practitioner may identify one or more chief complaints of the patient. If multiple complaints are identified, multiple examination templates may be selected, at 215. For each complaint, at least one examination template may be selected. According to various embodiments, multiple templates are merged, at 220, so as to omit redundant questions and/or examination steps. For example, a patient may present complaints that his wrist hurts and his fingers hurt. The examination template for “wrist hurts” and the examination template for “fingers hurt” may both contain a question such as “Is patient able to grasp objects?” Accordingly, system 100 may merge the two templates so that “Is patient able to grasp objects?” is only asked once, at 220. Alternatively, a patient may have only a single complaint, at 225. In either case, examination steps of an examination template are presented to the practitioner, at 230.
The selected examination template(s) may be populated with a variety of data types. For example, the patient's historical information and the patient's contributions, from 205, may be used to populate the examination template. According to various embodiments, the displayed examination steps may be presented in a hierarchical order. Continuing the example above, if the practitioner inputs “yes, the patient is able to grasp objects”, the examination template may automatically repopulate and display a series of lower order follow up questions based on the affirmative answer received. Whereas if the practitioner had answered “no”, the system may have displayed a different branch of lower order examination steps based on the negative answer.
System 200 may provide clinical clues associated with an examination step, at 235. The clinical clues may include contextually relevant medical information for the practitioner based on the selected examination template(s). For example, a clinical clue may include text, images, audio, and/or videos. A clinical clue may assist the practitioner in various manners, including guidance in decision-making, training to perform a particular examination, and/or examples of conditions. For example, a clinical clue may provide a short video clip showing how to perform a calcaneal squeeze, example photographs of specific rashes, or an audio sample of a particular breathing pattern.
Clinical clues may allow practitioners to develop skills more rapidly and allow for decreased on-the-job training. Moreover, systematic guidance may serve as reminders to practitioners preventing them from overlooking possibilities or misdiagnosing symptoms. In various embodiments, clinical clues may be associated with examination steps, impressions, or treatment plans. Clinical clues may be triggered as alerts if certain conditions are met. An examination step may comprise of a question such as “Does it look like this?”, whereupon a clinical clue illustrating a particular rash is displayed. According to various embodiments, a clinical clue may provide links or automatic navigation to external databases or Internet resources related to an examination step, impression, treatment plan, and/or other element within the system.
At 240, the results of the examination may be recorded. By utilizing a template, examinations may be standardized, thus allowing a variety of medical practitioners to employ a consistent approach, rather than an ad hoc examination that differs based on each practitioner's experience and training. Such consistency may allow medical practitioners to develop and refine examination templates to reduce the risk of errors and/or omissions in conducting patient examinations.
According to various embodiments, the input provided by the practitioner may result in addition examination steps, at 245. As discussed above, a response to an examination step may result in addition inquiry. Accordingly, examination steps within an examination template may be organized in a tree structure, such that some examination steps are conditional and only displayed if triggered.
An examination summary may be displayed, at 250, to provide a summary view of the findings of the examination. According to various embodiments, the examination may include a number of individual steps or assessments, some of which may not be displayed in the examination summary. Instead, the examination summary may omit irrelevant and/or cumulative information. Accordingly, the examination summary may include pertinent history, pertinent examination results, a medical impression, and/or a treatment plan. In addition, according to some embodiments, a probability or likelihood may be associated with each medical impression generated. In various embodiments, practitioners may customize information that appears on the examination summary in order to display the information that each practitioner deems pertinent or otherwise useful.
According to various embodiments, the results of each patient visit are stored and over time the accumulated information may be used to improve the process. For example, knowledge of prior injuries, sicknesses, and/or complaints may improve the efficiency of examination templates for a particular patient. Additionally impression probabilities may be more accurate. In certain embodiments, historical information may be retained and analyzed so that diagnoses associated with each examination may serve as a data point for estimating the likelihood of a variety of conditions.
According to various embodiments, a practitioner is able to override the impression generation process and manually input impressions based on the practitioner's personal experience. Treatment plans may be generated for manually input impressions. Additionally, manually input impressions may be utilized in future examinations for generating the probabilities of subsequent impressions. In certain embodiments, the impression probabilities may be tied to the results of ongoing medical research published in medical journals and other sources. In this way, a practitioner may have the benefit of such information even if the practitioner has not personally reviewed the results of the research. Similarly, the results and/or details of the patient's examination may be provided to data collection organizations and programs for use in future studies.
Treatment plans associated with the examination summary, at 245, may be based on a wide range of published sources such as medical journals, industry publications, and/or treatment plans utilized by the practitioner in the past.
At 265, an electronic medical record (EMR) may be prepared. The EMR may be stored and utilized in the future when similar circumstances are encountered. Over time, treatment plans may be refined and updated based on past experiences, whether in general or for a specific patient. Further, in instances where the treatment plan involves future activities (e.g., a follow-up visit in three months, altering the dose of a prescribed medication after a specified time, etc.), the patient may be reminded at the appropriate time. The reminder may be handled automatically, thus providing a convenience for the patient while not imposing an additional burden on the practitioner.
Furthermore, the EMR may encapsulate the results entered into the examination template together with the impression selected by the practitioner and the selected treatment plan. All of this information may be associated with the patient and may become a part of the patient's medical history.
Additionally, at 270, a bill for the examination may be prepared. Completing the examination template contemporaneously with the examination may allow certain embodiments to automatically perform evaluation & management (E&M) coding. Automatic E&M coding may save time and expense by ensuring that coders have all of the information required for billing, while costing the practitioner no additional time.
Computer-readable storage medium 310 may include an examination template selection module 312, a clinical clue module 314, a display module 316, an input reception module 318, an analyzer module 320, a medical impression generator module 322, an evaluation and management module 324, an examination template database 326, a template merging module 328, and an examination summary module 330. Each module may perform a particular task associated with system 300. One of skill in the art will recognize that certain embodiments may utilize more or fewer modules than are shown in
Exam template selection module 312 may be configured to receive a selection of at least one examination template from examination template database 326. According to various embodiments, each examination template stored within examination template database 326 includes at least one examination step. The selection of an examination template may be a manual selection or an automatic selection based on one or more chief complaints of a patient.
Examination template database 326 may also be configured to allow the creation and/or editing of examination templates. Display module 316 may be configured to display the examination steps of a selected examination template as well as provide general navigation and search functionality of an electronic medical support system.
One or more of the examination steps on an examination template may be associated with a clinical clue, as is described above. According to various embodiments, clinical clue module 314 may be configured to display a clinical clue associated with an examination step. Given that a clinical clue may be in the form of text, audio, video, and/or combinations thereof, the term “display” as used with respect to a clinical clue includes, without limitation, various forms of audio and/or visual presentations.
According to various embodiments, input reception module 318 is configured to receive input from a practitioner via any one of a wide variety of input devices. Specifically, a practitioner may provide input via a keyboard, mouse, joystick, track pad, rollerball, touchscreen, and/or the like. Additionally, according to various embodiments, an electronic medical support system may include, or be coupled to, voice recognition software to receive speech inputs.
Analyzer module 320 may be configured to analyze the input received from a practitioner. Evaluation and management module 324 may be configured to select at least one additional examination steps in response to the input received from a practitioner. This may continue until an examination is finished.
After the examination is finished, medical impression generator module 322 may determine a medical impression based on the analysis of the received inputs provided by the practitioner. Additionally, medical impression generator module 322 may determine a probability of each impression and/or suitable treatment plan(s).
According to various embodiments, a probability is associated with each medical impression generated, indicating the likelihood that a particular medical impression is accurate. Probabilities may be generated utilizing the inputs provided by the practitioner, various electronic databases of medical information, historical medical records of a particular patient, historical data of a related group of patients, and/or information manually input by a practitioner.
According to various embodiments, medical impression generator module 322 may be configured to analyze received inputs based on a system of rules. That is, an electronic medical support system may be configured to operate using logical rules to determine appropriate examination templates, diagnostic steps, medical impressions, and/or probabilities for a particular patient.
Accordingly, medical impression generator module 322 may be configured to analyze inputs utilizing any of a variety of logical rules and/or algorithms to determine appropriate examination templates, examination steps, diagnostic steps, medical impressions, and/or probabilities. Logical rules, algorithms, and/or processes that may be utilized by medical impression generator module 322 include conditional statements and conditional constructs such as If/Then statements, If/Then/Else statements, and Else/If statements.
Additionally, medical impression generator module 322 may utilize various conditional statements commonly used in programming languages, such as “case” and “switch” statements as well as pattern matching, and/or branch prediction techniques. Medical impression generator module 322 may utilize deduction rules, derivation rules, transformations, reaction rules, event triggering rules, and/or one or more variations of rule-based fuzzy logic.
Alternatively, or additionally, medical impression generator module 322 may utilize dynamic dispatch techniques known to those in the computer arts to establish and execution path from a chief complaint to a examination template, examination step, diagnostic step, medical impression, and/or a probability associated therewith.
An example process utilizing rules based logic is provided herein: A patient's chief complaint may be “ankle pain”, resulting in an “Ankle Injury” template being selected. One of the examination steps may request the amount of time the ankle has been in pain. According to one exemplary embodiment, the medical impression generator module 322 may be configured to automatically select “Osteochondral Ankle Injury” as the medical impression and indicate that an MRI should be performed if the amount of time the ankle has been in pain (or the injury occurred) is longer than 60 days. Alternatively, medical impression generator 322 may select “Osteochondral Angle Injury” as one of a set of possible medical impressions and indicate that an MRI should be performed as a diagnostic step for further confirmation.
Returning to
According to various embodiments if multiple examination templates are selected via examination template selection module 312, examination template merging module 328 may be configured to merge the two examination templates. As previously described, the merged examination template may omit redundant and/or cumulative examination steps. For example, if two examination templates include the same examination step, one instance of the examination step will be omitted from the merged examination template.
Consoles 410, 420, 430 may be implemented in a variety of ways, such as computers, workstations, terminals, virtual machines, and the like. Consoles 410, 420, 430 may each respectively include interface devices 412, 422, 432, a client side module 414, 424, 434, and a network connection 416, 426, 436. Interface devices 412, 422, 432 may allow a practitioner to interact with server 450 via a respective console. Such interaction may provide a practitioner access to a remote electronic medical support system located on server 450.
Client side modules 414, 424, and 434 may interact with server side module 476 resident on server 450.
Server 450 may include RAM 471, processor 472, a network connection 474, and a computer-readable storage medium 480, in communication via bus 460. Processor 472 may be embodied as a general-purpose processor, an application specific processor, a microcontroller, a digital signal processor, or other device known in the art. Processor 472 may perform logical and arithmetic operations based on program code stored within the computer-readable storage medium 480.
Computer-readable storage medium 480 may include an examination template selection module 482, a clinical clue module 492, a display module 484, an input reception module 494, an analyzer module 486, a medical impression module 496, an evaluation and management module 488, an examination template database 497, a template merging module 490, and an examination summary module 499. Each module may perform a particular task associated with system 400. One of skill in the art will recognize that certain embodiments may utilize more or fewer modules than are shown in
According to various embodiments, each of modules 482-499 may be configured to perform similarly to any of the various embodiments of the modules described in conjunction with
In addition to the illustrated modules useful for performing a patient exam, computer-readable storage medium 480 may further include various modules for managing and creating patient files, groups, and bills. For instance, computer-readable storage medium 480 may include a patient module configured to store information regarding patients, such as medical history, contact information, medical insurance information, and the like. The patient module may allow for patient information to be edited and new patients to be added.
Additionally, a group module may be configured to store information regarding organizations. As discussed above, groups may be based on one or more shared characteristics. A billing module may be configured to create and/or allow editing of bills for patients. The billing module may interact with the patient module and/or group module in order to generate bills that satisfy the requirements of various health insurance providers.
As previously described, the examination steps of an examination template may be organized in a tree structure, such that some examination steps are only presented if a triggering examination step is answered in a certain way. For example, if a practitioner indicates that there is no pain in the foot, it may be unnecessary to perform additional examination steps relating to the foot. Similarly, a practitioner's response of “Tender” with regards to the calcaneal squeeze test may cause additional examination steps related to the calcaneal squeeze test to be presented to the practitioner.
Additionally, a medical impression relating to a specific problem may be provided, at 1130. In the illustrated example, a patient's chief complaint of “chest pain” is determined to be cardiac chest pain. Accordingly, treatments may include an EKG, a chest x-ray, 81 mg of ASA, and the like. As each treatment is provided, it may be checked off in order to prevent accidental re-treatment. Additional treatments may be added, at 1140, and a practitioner may manually add additional impressions, at 1150. Again, scroll bar 1190 may allow a practitioner to access additional information or options.
The above description provides numerous specific details for a thorough understanding of the embodiments described herein. However, those of skill in the art will recognize that one or more of the specific details may be omitted, modified, and/or replaced by a similar process or system.
This application claims priority under 35 U.S.C. §119(e) to U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 61/290,432, filed Dec. 28, 2009, and entitled “SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR ELECTRONIC MEDICAL SUPPORT,” which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 61290432 | Dec 2009 | US |
