U.S. patent application number 15/213165 was filed with the patent office on 2016-12-08 for physiological imagery generator system and method.
The applicant listed for this patent is HUMANA INC.. Invention is credited to Ahmed Ghouri.
Application Number | 20160357943 15/213165 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 56381662 |
Filed Date | 2016-12-08 |
United States Patent
Application |
20160357943 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
Ghouri; Ahmed |
December 8, 2016 |
PHYSIOLOGICAL IMAGERY GENERATOR SYSTEM AND METHOD
Abstract
A system and method that generates a physiological imagery of
one or more parts of a patient's body are provided. The system and
method combine one or more parameters relating to a particular part
of the body and then generates the physiological imagery for the
part of the body wherein the physiological imagery may have a
characteristic that changes based on the state of the patient.
Inventors: |
Ghouri; Ahmed; (San Diego,
CA) |
|
Applicant: |
Name |
City |
State |
Country |
Type |
HUMANA INC. |
LOUISVILLE |
KY |
US |
|
|
Family ID: |
56381662 |
Appl. No.: |
15/213165 |
Filed: |
July 18, 2016 |
Related U.S. Patent Documents
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Application
Number |
Filing Date |
Patent Number |
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12765640 |
Apr 22, 2010 |
9396308 |
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15213165 |
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61171628 |
Apr 22, 2009 |
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Current U.S.
Class: |
1/1 |
Current CPC
Class: |
A61B 5/74 20130101; G16H
50/30 20180101; A61B 5/742 20130101; A61B 5/72 20130101; G06F 17/10
20130101; A61B 5/743 20130101; G16H 15/00 20180101; G16H 50/20
20180101; G06F 19/34 20130101 |
International
Class: |
G06F 19/00 20060101
G06F019/00; A61B 5/00 20060101 A61B005/00 |
Claims
1. A system for generating a physiological imagery of one of a body
part and an organ of a patient, comprising: a physiological imagery
unit device that receives one or more parameters about a medical
state of an organ of a patient; and a computer implemented
physiological image generator associated with a computing device,
said physiological image generator configured to generate a
physiological imagery of the organ for the patient based on medical
state of the patient as determined by an algorithm executed by said
computer implemented physiological image generator that receives
said parameters, said physiological image generator comprising a
multi-factorial Boolean expression that is specific to the organ
which is the subject of the imagery, wherein the physiological
imagery being an image of the organ of the patient and wherein said
multi-factor Boolean expression determines a display characteristic
of the physiological imagery based on medical state of the
patient.
2. The system of claim 1, wherein the characteristic of the
physiological imagery comprises one or more different colors based
on the medical state of the patient as indicated by the one or more
parameters.
3. The system of claim 1, wherein received parameters comprise at
least one parameter selected from a list consisting of: health of
an organ or an organ system, health of the patient, a drug therapy
analysis and a treatment intensity.
4. The system of claim 1, wherein the received parameters comprise
a health of an organ or an organ system, wherein the physiological
imagery is an image of the organ or organ system and wherein the
physiological imagery comprises a color of the image of the organ
or organ system to indicate a severity of the injury to the organ
or organ system.
5. The system of claim 1, wherein received parameters comprise a
drug therapy analysis, wherein the physiological imagery is a bar
chart of one or more indicators of the drug therapy analysis and
wherein the physiological imagery comprises a color and a length of
the bar chart that indicates an action to be taken by a doctor with
respect to the drug therapy.
6. The system of claim 1, wherein the received parameters comprise
a treatment intensity, wherein the physiological imagery is a bar
chart of one or more indicators of the treatment intensity and
wherein the physiological imagery further comprises a color and a
length of the bar chart that indicate an action to be taken by a
doctor with respect to the treatment intensity.
7. The system of claim 6, wherein the one or more indicators
represent at least one of: a treatment intensity efficacy
indication, a treatment procedure intensity indication, a lifestyle
intensity indication and a monitoring indication.
8. The system of claim 1 further comprising a physician unit,
coupled over a link to the physiological imagery unit device, the
physician unit being configured to display the physiological
imagery so that a user visualizes the medical state of the
patient.
9. The system of claim 1, wherein the physiological imagery unit
device further comprises the computer implemented physiological
image generator so that the physiological imagery is generated on
the physiological imagery unit device and wherein the physiological
imagery unit device communicates the physiological imagery to the
physician unit.
10. The system of claim 8, wherein the physician unit further
comprises one of a personal computer, a terminal, a laptop
computer, a mobile device, a pocket PC device, a smartphone, a
tablet computer, a mobile phone and a mobile email device.
11. A method for generating physiological imagery of an organ of a
patient, the method comprising the steps of: receiving one or more
parameters about a medical state of one of an organ of a patient;
generating physiological imagery of the organ for the patient using
an algorithm comprising a multi-factorial Boolean expression that
is specific to the organ based on the one or more parameters, said
multi-factorial Boolean expression determining an appearance
characteristic of the generated imagery, the physiological imagery
being one of the organ; and changing a display characteristic of
the physiological imagery based on the medical state of the organ
of a patient as indicated by an output of the Boolean
expression.
12. The method of claim 11, wherein the characteristic of the
physiological imagery is a color of the physiological imagery and
wherein generating the physiological imagery of the patient further
comprises generating the physiological imagery having one or more
different colors based on the state of the patient as indicated by
the one or more parameters.
13. The method of claim 11, wherein at least one of the received
parameters is selected from a group consisting of: health of an
organ or an organ system, health of the patient, a drug therapy
analysis and a treatment intensity.
14. The method of claim 11, wherein at least one of the received
parameters is selected from a group consisting of: health of an
organ or an organ system, wherein the physiological imagery is an
image of the organ or organ system and wherein changing the
characteristic of the physiological imagery further comprises
changing a color of the image of the organ or organ system to
indicate a severity of an injury to the organ or organ system.
15. The method of claim 11, wherein the received parameters
comprise data representing an analysis of a drug therapy, wherein
the physiological imagery is a bar chart of one or more indicators
of the result of the analysis of the drug therapy and wherein
changing the characteristic of the physiological imagery further
comprises changing one of a color and a length of the one or more
indicators to indicate an action to be taken by a doctor with
respect to the drug therapy.
16. The method of claim 11, wherein the received parameters
comprise data representing a treatment intensity, wherein the
physiological imagery is a bar chart of one or more indicators of
the treatment intensity and wherein changing the characteristic of
the physiological imagery further comprises changing one of a color
and a length of the one or more indicators to indicate an action to
be taken by a doctor with respect to the treatment intensity.
17. The method of claim 11 further comprising viewing the one or
more parameters about a medical state of a patient associated with
the physiological imagery by using a pointing device to point to
the physiological imagery.
18. The method of claim 11 further comprising viewing, on a
physician unit, the physiological imagery so that a user visualizes
the medical state of the patient.
19. A system for generating a physiological imagery of an organ of
a patient, comprising: a physiological imagery unit device that
receives one or more parameters about a medical state of an organ
of a patient, the received parameters comprise a health of an organ
or an organ system; a computer implemented physiological image
generator, associated with a computing device, that generates a
physiological imagery of the organ of the patient, wherein the
physiological imagery is an image of the organ or organ system and
wherein the physiological imagery further comprises a color of the
image of the organ or organ system to indicate a severity of the
injury to the organ or organ system based on medical state of the
patient; and an algorithm executed by said computer implemented
physiological image generator that receives said parameters, said
physiological image generator comprising a multi-factorial Boolean
expression that is specific to the organ which is the subject of
the imagery, the multi-factor Boolean expression determines a
display characteristic of the physiological imagery based on
medical state of the patient.
20. The system of claim 19, wherein the received parameters further
comprise data representing an analysis of a drug therapy, wherein
the physiological imagery further comprises a bar chart of one or
more indicators of the result of the analysis of the drug therapy
and wherein changing the characteristic of the physiological
imagery further comprises changing one of a color and a length of
the one or more indicators to indicate an action to be taken by a
doctor with respect to the drug therapy.
Description
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
[0001] This application is a continuation of U.S. application Ser.
No. 12/765,640 filed Apr. 22, 2010, now U.S. Pat. No. 9,396,308
issued Jul. 19, 2016. U.S. application Ser. No. 12/765,640 is a
non-provisional application of U.S. Provisional Patent Application
No. 61/171,628 filed on Apr. 22, 2009. All aforementioned
applications are hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety
as if fully cited herein.
FIELD
[0002] The disclosure relates generally to medical visualization
and in particular to a system and method that generates imagery for
a state of the patient so that the state of the patient can be
rapidly visualized.
BACKGROUND
[0003] Physicians are besieged with information overload and a lack
of time to see patients. For example, a typical US office-based
doctor can spend 7-10 minutes on average per patient, and may see
30 patients per day. In critical settings, such as the ICU, there
may be more time spent per patient, but there is a flood of
information from multiple sensors, monitors, and ventilators, for
example, and often decisions of life-or-death importance must be
made within minutes to seconds.
[0004] Today's electronic medical records systems present raw
information to the doctor, such as a list of individual diagnoses,
a list of current medications, and a list of individual lab
results. This is wholly insufficient for time-pressed physicians
who must read and interpret each individual data point into a
mental picture of the state of the patient. This process is fraught
with error and is humanly unscalable as the volume of information
available for a patient grows without bound. Numbers and words grow
exponentially without the ability to cross-correlate or interpret
them in a simple, visualizable way that fosters insight into
decision making.
[0005] Systems exist that provide an anatomical avatar that shows a
body part and may have pieces of medical data, such as X-rays, etc.
associated with the body part that a doctor/user can access.
However, these anatomical avatar systems do not interpret the
pieces of medical data nor provide a visual way to assess the state
of the patient or the state of a body part/organ system of the
patient.
[0006] Thus, it is desirable to provide a physiological imagery
generating system and method by providing a visualization of the
physiology, and it is to this end that the system and method are
directed.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0007] FIG. 1 illustrates an example of a web-based implementation
of a physiological imagery generation system;
[0008] FIG. 2 illustrates a mockup of the physiological image for a
new, undiagnosed disease using the physiological imagery
system;
[0009] FIG. 3 shows a visual example of an analysis of drug therapy
using the physiological imagery system; and
[0010] FIG. 4 shows a visual example of a treatment intensity
potential for a patient with Type I (insulin-dependent) diabetes
mellitus using the physiological imagery system.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF ONE OR MORE EMBODIMENTS
[0011] The system and method are particularly applicable to a
web-based system and it is in this context that the system and
method will be described. It will be appreciated, however, that the
system and method has greater utility because: 1) the system and
method can be implemented in various manners that are within the
scope of the system so that the system and method are not limited
to the example web-based system described below; and 2) the system
and method can be used to generate various different types of
physiological imagery and the system and method are not limited to
the examples provided below.
[0012] The system and method abstracts all medical data
points/medical parameters for a patient into visualizable
physiologic parameters that are independent of any single data
point, and represent the synthesis of multiple related data points
into a coherent interpretation of physiology and derangement due to
disease. Additionally, the synthesis is performed in real-time, so
that the arrival of any single data point can change the entire
visualization schema without any human intervention, research, or
request. For example, arrival of a profoundly elevated liver
function test which infers injury to the bile duct can change the
entire interpretation of the function of the organ (in this case,
the exocrine function of the liver). Moreover, the physiologic
image can be decomposed into reasoned elements so that the doctor
can understand the basis for the imagery in an intuitive
fashion.
[0013] FIG. 1 illustrates an example of a web-based implementation
of a physiological imagery generation system 109 that includes one
or more physician units 102, such as physician units 102a, 102b, .
. . , 102n, that are capable of establishing a session and
communicating with a physiological imagery unit 104 over a link
110. The link 110 may be a wired or wireless link, such as the
Internet or World Wide Web, cellular network, digital data network,
etc., wherein the physician unit(s) and the physiological imagery
unit 104 establish a session and communicate with each other using
a known protocol, such as HTTP or HTTPS or other protocols.
However, the system is not limited to any particular link as the
system may use any communications link, such as a landline or
cellular link, or any network link, such as a local area network,
wide area network, etc.
[0014] Each physician unit 102 may be a processing unit based
device that has sufficient processing power, memory and
wireless/wired connectivity circuitry to interact with the
physiological imagery unit 104. For example, each physician unit
102 may be a personal computer, a terminal, a laptop computer, a
mobile device, a pocket PC device, a smartphone (RIM Blackberry,
Apple iPhone, etc.), tablet computer, a mobile phone, a mobile
email device, etc. Each physician unit 102 may also include an
local physiological image unit 111, such as units 111a, 111b, . . .
, 111n, that maybe, in the exemplary web-based client/server
implementation, an physiological imagery application (a plurality
of lines of computer code stored in the physician unit and executed
by the processing unit of the physician unit) that generates and/or
displays physiological imagery (See FIGS. 2-4 for illustrative
examples of the physiological imagery) that can be displayed using
a typical browser application (not shown) executing on the
physician unit wherein the physician receives data/information from
the physiological imagery unit 104, such as the physiological
imagery to be displayed or the one or more parameters used to
generate the physiological imagery.
[0015] The physiological imagery unit 104, in one implementation
may be implemented as one or more well-known server computers (with
the typical well known server computer components) that execute one
or more pieces of software. In the web-based example shown in FIG.
1, the physiological imagery unit 104 may include a software-based
web server 112, such as Apache web servers, executed by the
processing unit(s) of the one or more server computer that
establish the communications session with each physician unit,
generate the web-pages downloaded to each physician unit 102 and
receives the data/information from each physician unit. The web
server 112 can handle multiple simultaneous communication sessions
with a plurality of physician units. The physiological imagery unit
104 may also include a physiological imagery unit 113, implemented
as a piece of software executed by the processing unit(s) of the
one or more server computer(s) that receives the one or more
parameters about a patient and sends that information to each
physician unit so that each physician unit can generate the
physiological imagery for a particular patient as described below
in more detail. Alternatively, the physiological imagery unit 104
that receives the one or more parameters about a patient (such as
from an electronic medical record system or any other source) may
generate the physiological imagery for the patient based on the one
or more parameters and send the generates physiological imagery to
the physician unit that requested it as described below in more
detail. A characteristic of the physiological imagery may be
changed so that the physiological imagery can convey different
levels or severity of the physiological condition of the patient as
described below in more detail.
[0016] The system 109 may further include a data store 114,
implemented as one or more databases hosted on one or more database
servers in the illustrated implementation (that may be part of the
unit 104 or remotely located from the unit 104), that includes a
plurality of health records 106 for a plurality of patients (which
may also be stored in an electronic medical record system that is
remote from the system 109), a physiological image generator rules
store 108 that stores that various physiological imagery and rules
and the physiological images generated for each physiological
condition with the understanding that additional physiological
images for additional physiological conditions and additional rules
for physiological images may be added into the store 108. The
system 109 may also include a user portion 116 that may include
various pieces of information about the users of the system. For
example, the user portion may have a record associated with each
physician/user that uses the system that includes, for example, the
preferences for each physician/user of the system.
[0017] In addition to the web-based implementation described above,
the system may also be implemented as a client/server model, a
hosted system model, a standalone computer executing a piece of
physiological imagery software (that maybe loaded onto a piece of
media) or software as a service model in which a physician may send
the one or more parameters to the physiological imagery unit 104
that then sends the generated physiological imagery back to the
physician unit.
[0018] The system 109 may be used to generate physiological imagery
in various medical areas. For example, the system 109 may be used
to generate physiological imagery to visualize: (1) instantaneous
health risk (IHR) according to an organ system, (2) a modifiable
health risk (MHR) according to an organ system, (3) a therapeutic
analysis of the value of current medications, and (4) an
alternative diagnosis probability system. By way of example, a
color coded image of an organ might intensify when a combination of
lab results appear within a specified time interval. Alternatively,
an image might abstract the tolerability of a medication by
numerically amalgamating the number and severity of multiple side
effects into a single score that can be visualized in a graphical,
colorized format. The seminal aspect is therefore consolidation of
individual data points into a physiologically interpreted view of
the whole.
[0019] In operation, the system 109 synthesizes disparate
information about a physiological condition in real time into a
visual image (the physiological imagery) that is understandable
within seconds without the need to read any numbers or text. This
interpretive speed does not exist in current electronic medical
records and makes the current practice of medicine highly
inefficient and riskier due to the time and mental effort required
by the physician to create a mental abstraction of the state of the
patient. In contrast, the system 109 synthesizes the disparate data
about the state of the patient and generates the physiological
imagery that visually conveys the state of the patient. Now,
several examples of the physiological imagery and the rules to
generate the particular physiological imagery are described below.
However, the physiological imagery system is not limited to the
examples described below nor to the particular states of the
patient shown in the examples.
[0020] FIG. 2 illustrates a mockup of the physiological image for a
new, undiagnosed disease using the physiological imagery system. In
the example shown in FIG. 2, an organ system image is generated as
the physiological image which shows the functional status of any
body organ. In FIG. 2, a physiological image 120 is shown which is
the human body with an organ system 122 (the bile duct and
gallbladder in this example) highlighted so that a physician can
visualize the state of the organ wherein the state of the organ is
generated based on one or more medical parameters that pertain to
the organ. For example, for the gall bladder and bile duct shown in
FIG. 2, the combination of simultaneously elevated serum gamma
glutamyl transpeptidase (GGT), alkaline phosphatase (AP), and
conjugated bilirubin (CB) may suggest inflammation and destruction
of the bile duct and gallbladder without damage to the liver
itself. The system also allows the user of the system to expand the
size of the organ in question.
[0021] In the system 109, a characteristic of the physiological
imagery may be changed to denote different states of the patient or
the organ, etc. that allow a user to quickly look at the
physiological imagery and determine the state of the patient. The
characteristic may be any feature that can be changed to allow
someone to visually distinguish between the different states of the
patient or the organ, body part, etc. For example, the
characteristic may be a color change, a size change, a contrast
change, etc. In one implementation, the characteristic of the
physiological image may be the color of the physiological image
wherein a first color 124a indicates a first state of the patient
(such as mild injury to the organ as shown in FIG. 2), a second
color 124b indicates a second state of the patient (such as
moderate injury to the organ as shown in FIG. 2) and a third color
124c indicates a third state of the patient (such as severe injury
to the organ as shown in FIG. 2). The system 109 is capable of
generating a plurality of different states for each physiological
image and is not limited to the three states shown in FIG. 2. Thus,
in a physiologic image as shown in FIG. 1, this could appear as a
red organ (in this case gallbladder and bile ducts) superimposed
upon a human figure for quick anatomical identification and with
color and intensity proportional to the degree of harm (e.g., lab
value patterns and ranges out of the normal expected values).
[0022] The system may have one or more sets of rules (stored in the
store 108) for each physiological imagery that determines how the
characteristic of the physiological imagery is changed to reflect
the different states of the patient, body part, organ system, etc.
Each rule may use one or more parameters of the patient state or
organ system state, such as alkaline phosphatase (AP) for the bile
duct and gall bladder, to determine the characteristic of the
physiological imagery. For example, for the gallbladder and bile
duct organ system shown in FIG. 2, the following rules may be used
to determine the characteristic of the physiological imagery:
[0023] Light red=(AP 2-3.times.normal) AND (GGT 2-3.times.normal)
AND (CB<2 times normal) which indicates mild injury of the
gallbladder and bile duct organ system;
[0024] Medium red=(AP 3-4.times.normal) AND (GGT 3-4.times.normal)
AND (CB<2 times normal) which indicates moderate injury of the
gallbladder and bile duct organ system; and
[0025] Bright red=(AP>4.times.normal) AND
(GGT>4.times.normal) AND (CB<2 times normal) which indicates
severe injury of the gallbladder and bile duct organ system.
[0026] Using the system, a physician can quickly look at the
physiological imagery to determine the state of the patient or an
organ system of the patient as shown in FIG. 2 wherein the
characteristics of the physiological imagery are based on one or
more parameters that are associated with the state of the patient
or the organ system of the patient. As would be understood,
different states of the patient or different organ systems would
have different sets of rules that use different parameters and the
system and method are not limited to the rules and parameters that
appear in the examples set forth herein.
[0027] When the physiological imagery is displayed, the physician
may click or `mouse-over` the physiological imagery to see the
underlying reasoning, the rules for the physiological imagery and
the one or more parameters used to generate the physiological
imagery (shown in FIG. 2 for illustration purposes) at any time.
Additionally, the implicating lab results may have arrived just a
few minutes ago, even during the office visit or during the
physical examination itself. Thus, the physiological imagery is
updated in real-time (seconds or less) because decisions are made
in minutes to seconds in the medical practice.
[0028] FIG. 3 shows a visual example of an analysis of drug therapy
using the physiological imagery system. In the example in FIG. 3,
the physiological imagery is used to visualize an analysis of drug
therapy, in this case lisinopril for hypertension. In this example,
the physiological imagery may be one or more indicators 130 (such
as one or more bars as shown in FIG. 3) wherein the length of the
bar (intended for colorblind doctors) or its color is the
changeable characteristic of the physiological imagery that
suggests the size of the opportunity to make a relevant action, in
this case represented simplistically on a scale of 1 to 100, where
100=most modifiable by some action by the doctor. For example, the
drug safety bar, currently appears as a score of 74. This is
calculated based on a rule with one or more parameters because the
patient's kidney function dropped below a threshold requiring dose
adjustment and may have been normal just minutes before the lab
result. The patient is close to the threshold, so the bar is not at
100. However, it conveys a continuum of clinical relevance that is
readily appreciated. As above, the physician may click or
`mouse-over` the physiological imagery to see the underlying
reasoning, the rules for the physiological imagery and the one or
more parameters used to generate the physiological imagery (shown
in FIG. 3 for illustration purposes) at any time.
[0029] As another example of the analysis of drug therapy, if the
patient were to suddenly have the arrival of a positive pregnancy
test results (a parameter that is received by the system 109), the
bar for drug safety would become 100 (long and bright red for
example) because lisinopril is very dangerous (teratogenic leading
to mutations) for a fetus. As above, the physiological imagery is
rendered in real-time for the patient and are most commonly
multi-factorial Boolean logic expressions (e.g., A or B and not C
within time X) which provide a weighted, interpretive image of the
potential to beneficially improve care for the example shown in
FIG. 3. In contrast to the lisinopril drug therapy shown, the drug
therapy for calcitonin (which is also being taken by the patient)
is shown towards to the bottom right in which all of the bars are
green and short which means that there is nothing to modify about
the calcitonin drug therapy.
[0030] FIG. 4 shows a visual example of a treatment intensity
potential for a patient with Type I (insulin-dependent) diabetes
mellitus using the physiological imagery system. In the example
shown in FIG. 4, a treatment intensity potential for a patient with
Type I (insulin-dependent) diabetes mellitus is shown. In this
example, the physiological imagery may be one or more indicators
130 (such as one or more bars as shown in FIG. 4) wherein the
length of the bar (intended for colorblind doctors) or its color
suggest the size of the opportunity to make a relevant action. As
above, the physician may click or `mouse-over` the physiological
imagery to see the underlying reasoning, the rules for the
physiological imagery and the one or more parameters used to
generate the physiological imagery (shown in FIG. 4 for
illustration purposes) at any time.
[0031] In the example shown in FIG. 4, there is significant
opportunity to increase the patient's medication daily dose (he is
taking the lowest possible dose and filling the prescription
infrequently) and also for the patient to stop smoking, lose
weight, and exercise. As above, the physiological imagery allows
the physician to rapidly visualize the patient's status (from an
assessment of care to date) rapidly without excessive reading of
numbers or text. In contrast, the patient's low thyroid
(hypothyroidism) imagery 140 has all small (green) bars, indicating
very little potential for therapeutic improvement in care. Using
the system, a doctor could thus quickly bypass having to read
specific laboratory markers for hypothyroidism or perform a
detailed physical exam for the stigmata of hypothyroidism. However,
when desired, a simple act such as a `mouse-over` shows the
reasoning behind each of the images' pattern, size, or color which
is the interpretation of the underlying data showing why the
imagery was generated.
[0032] In the above examples, it can be seen that a doctor caring
for a patient with multiple comorbidities and/or taking multiple
medications and/or having multiple surgeries can be assessed in a
matter of seconds without reading of raw text or numbers. The
specifics of the formulas used underneath each imagery rule (e.g.,
the combination of lab ranges, physical findings, and patterns for
bile duct injury in FIG. 2) are not limiting to the system and
method since those formula/rules and parameters can be added,
deleted or modified at any time and may change with experience and
new medical knowledge discovery. In addition, the rules for a
particular patient, a particular organ system, a particular drug
therapy or a treatment intensity profile (described below) can also
modified by each physician or other user of the system.
[0033] The categories of interest described above are basic to the
practice of medicine. For example, for any disease the broadest
scope of possible interventions are (1) medications, (2) procedures
including surgery, (3) lifestyle changes, and (4) monitoring (by
office visits and/or lab tests). There are no other fundamental
treatment categories, so virtually all diseases can be represented
using this visually interpretative fashion. In addition, similar
universal categories are standards for medication analysis,
regardless of location. That is, all medications are intrinsically
evaluated by physicians for (1) efficacy, (2) safety, (3)
tolerability, and (4) affordability in every case they are used.
What has been missing to date is the rapid, real-time synthesis of
all pertinent information to distill these analyses down to simple,
visualizable abstract images which support and display the
underlying physiologic reasoning as to how they were generated,
instantly and without physician effort.
[0034] In summary, the physiological imagery system and method
allows a physician or other medical health care worker to quickly
visualize (based on multiple different pieces of medical
information/parameters in real-time) a possible new problem with an
organ system (an example of which is shown in FIG. 2), an
evaluation of the current drugs being taken by a patient (an
example of which is shown in FIG. 3) and/or an evaluation of known
existing diseases of the patent (an example of which is shown in
FIG. 4).
[0035] While the foregoing has been with reference to a particular
embodiment of the system and method, it will be appreciated by
those skilled in the art that changes in this embodiment may be
made without departing from the principles and spirit of the system
and method, the scope of which is defined by the appended
claims.
* * * * *