WO2002033867A2

WO2002033867A2 - An electronic system to consult doctor at & from any place in the world

Info

Publication number: WO2002033867A2
Application number: PCT/IN2001/000155
Authority: WO
Inventors: Rageshkumar Mahendrabhai Shah
Original assignee: Rageshkumar Mahendrabhai Shah
Priority date: 2000-10-18
Filing date: 2001-09-10
Publication date: 2002-04-25
Also published as: WO2002033867A3; AU2001290221A1

Abstract

This electronic system is invented for the patient situated at the remote place to get immediate medical advice at his place which would save time and money of travelling to the place where expert doctor or hospital are situated. The system transmits the patient's data on simple telephone line anywhere in the world. It also support the wireless, internet & mobile connection. The system makes it possible to transmit all the medical records of the patient (i.e. the ECG, X-ray, EEG, CT Scan, video clip pathological reports, pathological slide images, doctor's & patient's video & audio, the prescription in doctor's handwriting & other documents) at a time. Documents of the patient are stored, transmitted & segregated appropriately & automatically as per patient. The system is easy to understand & operate does not require any special computer knowledge for the operation.

Description

AN ELECTRONIC SYSTEM TO CONSULT DOCTOR AT & FROM ANY PLACE IN THE WORLD.

Technical Field

This invention relates to AN ELECTRONIC SYSTEM TO CONSULT DOCTOR AT & FROM ANY PLACE IN THE WORLD.

It has become very difficult for the people in rural & remote area of the country to access timely, quality & specially medical treatment if there is lack of facilities for communication. Doctors are available fat away from the patient's location. In emergency there won't be timely expert advice available. Approach to expert is time consuming & expensive. Sometimes it could happen that when patient reaches the health facilities but doctor may not be available & it is difficult to know where & how far the doctor will be available. Even if one come it is again time consuming & sometimes critical for the patient. To over come these difficulties some system or instruments have beer- invented which provide expert's opinion from distance but are limited to one or two system only. So not all information of the patient can get converted to the doctor. It may happen that with one disease patient may have some other complain which may or may not be related with the other one. So it become necessary that expert should know all the complains of the patient. For better diagnosis, instead of some limited information it is necessary to send all medical data to the wherever available.

Background Art

Present invention is an electronic system to transfer all medical data from one location to another - In practice it means that medical data of the person like case history, EKG & on line ECG, laboratory- investigation, X-ray, CT Scan, angiography, MRIs .£ other images could be transferred in one capsule from one geographical location to the another. I.e. this is totally integrated system.

The patient, could be located anywhere in the world. In many, case hospital could be far away from the medical facilities or expert opinion may not be available easily. This electronic system is meant to bridge this gap .

All the medical data of a patient could be transferred from a location in remote area to a central location where expert care & opinion are available. If doctor is not available at hospital or health facilities, the data from there can be transferred to his clinic or resident .

Moreover, if necessary this could be advanced to video " conference between patient or his doctor & the experts at major hospital. Even then snapshot & moving i ag^p could be shown to the expert. This would help a large number of cases to be treated competently even in distant area.

This is three stage this electronic system in which at first stage where the patient feed their complains. Send their X-ray, CT Scan, blood smear image, pathology reports & other information with handwritten data from the center. This center is transmitting center.

From transmitting center the are transferred to the second stage a receiving center. Here the data from the transmitting center are received in the same image at the transmitting center. At receiving center doctor analyses the data & complain of the patient & give their expert opinion to the patient. This opinion transferred to the transmitting for patient care.

But if the doctor is not available at receiving center the data from the receiving center are transferred to the panel doctor at their dispensary or the resident.

Disclosure of the Invention

Present invention electronic system is Window 98 compatible .. PC-nased medical imaging which covers electronic system function. The system implements for the function of the extensive and lager system and also maintains latest international standards. These system with a 32-bit interface combine the superior performance of the software version with send, receive query/retrieve, print [IQ98] and the ability to communicate via the Internet. POTS, WAN's, & LAN's - all from a single desktop unit. The electronic system includes :

1] . 32-bit Application

2] . Integration of the new Digital camera

3] . Precise & immediate measurement of angle

& density (histograms) 4].DICOM 3.0 complaint (international image transferring standards)

5]. Check out New Features with the 6.5 series software release 6] . MRI, Ultrasound . CT & CR image viewing and transfer 7] . Color controls for contrast, artificial coloring & reversed imaging

This system provides the facilities of collaboration & consultation to the physician & Cardiologist & Radiologist from local hospital to remote location or even within the same hospital on patient images. This is achieved by live camera & medical scraps or by scanning high-resolution film. This electronic system permits stacked & tiled image & gives a multitude of tools, features & function are selected from a convenient floating toolbox. These tools, features & functions allow manipulation, migration, coloring & animation of image. The use of a printer, notepad, cropping image rotation and inversion and measurement tools enhance consultation. X-ray, MRIs & other images can be scanned directly in to the system for instant remote consultation. It also works as pre-conferencing tools to allow the UN attended precious time during consultation.

The system can be with all communication services as under:

1 LANs with Ethernet

2 ISO Ethernet/ATM

3 WANs with ISDN (BRI and PRI) , TI,

EL,SW56kbps, leased lines and satellite links. It is fully compliant with both ITU/TSS H.320 video conferencing and DICOM 3.0 image transferring international standards

4 with PSTN/simple analog telephone line

SYSTEM COMPONENTS 1 window 98-compaticle Pentium 366mhz PC with 64MB RAM & 4.1 GB HD (or higher)

2 40x CD-ROM (or higher)

3 3-button mouse

4 104- key Keyboard 5 Floppy Drive

6 SVGA Monitor

7 Video capture card

8 Sound Card 9 A/D Card

10 KBPS MODEM ^•

11 UPS

12 Laser/Inject Printer

13 Video camera 14 Multimedia kit with Microphone 15 Scanner

It requires the following tools to run this electronic system:

1 Medical Version 6.5

2 Windows 98 or high Operating System

3 JPEG Compression

4 Scanning Software 5 Video Recording Software 6 Printer Driver

It also requires following communication interface:

1 33.6 Kbps

2 ISDN (BRI or PRI ) , ATM, Ethernet , TI , ATM, RS- 499 or V . 335 Satellite also possible

3 Internet Modem These are some optional requirement such as:

1 Document Camera

2 Image Digitizer 3 Medical Scopes

4 High Resolution Display

Other miscellaneous requirements are:

Cable and Power strip

The program begin with main menu. Click on Add panel to add panel doctor information such as panel doctor code, name, e-mail address, phone numbers.

In Data Management new patient data entry to create new patient data. The new option allows to make new patient data entry like patient number, age, name and select doctor name.

To create the document for the patient prepare different type of medical documents related to the selected patient.

The documents are

1 AUDIO: There is Audio recorder which records the data are digitally transferred and store on the hard disk.

2 CATHLAB The scanned image of the CATH

LAB report of the patient can be stored. The doctor can store a typed report related to this scanned image to be transmitted to the panel doctor via receiving center. This data are scanned by the scanner.

3 CT SCAN: The CT Scan image of the patient is also scanned by the scanned and stored on the hard disk. This scanned image can be displayed on the screen.

4 ECHO CARDIOGRAPH: This is a moving image, that is captured live when the echo cardiograph is being taken for this requisition board is used which transferred and stored on the computer hardware,,

EEG: The image of the EEG of the patient can be scanned and stored with patient's other medical reports .

EKG: The patient's EKG strip can be the scanner and stored along with the other reports .

HAND WRITTEN NOTE: This is prepared by using electronic pad & electronic pen in any desired language.

MRI: The MRI image of the patient can be scanned by the scanner and stored with the other details of the patient.

ON LINE EKG:

HISTORY OF PATIENT: The history of the patient is taken, stored and displayed

SNAPSHOT: The unique facility provided by the system using digital camera and combined an audio clip with it. This allows the doctor too explain the things at remote place More visually.

TYPENOTE: allows the user to type any kind of reports, which are to be sent to the doctor. 13 VIDEO: Here the doctor allowed to the record moving image like conversation between two doctor, doctor and patient 5 regarding the case which can be transferred to the remote place.

14 SLIDE IMAGE: For this one microscope is used which is connected with another o camera. The image from this is scanned stored and displayed.

After creating the data from the computer and prepare for transmission then by SEND data will be transferred j to the receiving center.

By RECEIVE the data from the transmitting center are received at received center, here patient are registered for doctor view, now doctor will analyse the data and give his opinion. The expert opinion from here is transferred to the transmitting center where patient can get the advice about his complain.

If doctor is not available then CONNECT the panel doctor by using his phone number. Transfer all the details of the concern patient to the doctor. Here the doctor analyses the data and gives his opinion. The expert opinion is transferred to the receiving center and there it is transferred to the transmitting center where patient can get advice about his complain. i

With reference of following figures and table it will be easier to understand.

5

Fig-1 illustrates the electric system in which al is the Transmitting center & a2 Receiving center of the system.

io Fig-2 illustrates the videoconference and transfer of the moving images .

Fig-3 illustrates the block diagram of the electronic system.

15

Fig-4 illustrates the detailed black diagram of the transmitting center.

Fig-5 is a block diagram of the Receiving center.

20

Fig-6 is the block diagram of the panel doctor system, if doctor is not available at the receiving center the documents of the patient are sent to the panel doctor where ever he is available.

25

Fig-7 is a flow chart for the initiation of the system at the transmitting center.

Fig-8 is a flowchart for new patient data entry. Fig-9 is a transmitting center flow chart for review of existing documents.

Fig-10 is a flow chart at transmitting center to create new documents for the patient.

Fig-11 & 12 is transmit flow chart for transmission.

Fig-13 illustrates the flow chart of Transmitting center sent & receive documents & comments to & from receiving center.

Fig-14 is the chart illustrating the transmitting center receive data from receiving center.

Fig-15 is a flow chart for registration of comments on transmitting center.

Fig-lβ is a flow chart for transfer of new comments to existing list of files of the patient.

Fig-17 is -flowchart for on-line monitoring at Transmitting center.

Fig- 18 illustrates flow chart for communication program to transfer all live files to the panel Doctor & perform live chat . Fig-19 shows flow chart for Gain setting during display of graph.

Fig-20 shows how chart for display of calibration pulse 5 via plotting of graph.

Fig-21 shows flow chart for freezing of trace during the plotting of delayed trace. o

Fig-22 shows transmit flow chart for switching of swipe speed of the graph.

Fig-23 shows transmit flow chart of increasing & 5 decreasing the upper limit setting for patient's heart rate .

Fig-24 shows transmit flow chart of increasing & decreasing the lower limit setting for the patient's ) heart rate.

Fig-25 shows transmitting center flow chart for review if new comments received from Panel of via receiving center .

Fig-26 shows flow chart for creating on-line ECG at transmitting center.

Fig-27 is the block flow chart of transmitting center including menu section.

Fig-28 is the flow chart to initialize the system at the receiving center.

5

Fig-29 is the flow chart of receiving center that receiving data (A when receiving from the transmitting center & B when receive from panel doctor) .

0 Fig-30 is the flow chart for center selection.

Fig-31 is a block flow chart for review of documents at receiving center A.

5 Fig-32 is a block flow chart of receiving center B.

Fig-33 is a flow chart for adding panel & detail.

Fig-34 is a flow chart for send documents. )

Fig-35 is a flow chart for sending patient's documents received from transmitting center to respective panel doctor.

Fig-36 is a flow chart for receiving comments from different panel doctor for transmuting center.

Fig-37 is a flow chart for center selection. Fig-38 is a flow chart for review of documents.

Fig-39 is a flow chart for registration of comments on receiving on receiving center.

Fig-40 is a block flow chart of receiving center with menu section.

Fig-41 is a flow chart for the panel doctor to receive data.

Fig-42 is a flow chart of panel doctor to receive data to receive and to send comments data from & to receiving .

Fig-43 is a panel doctor flow chart for center selection .

Fig-44 is a panel doctor flow chart for review of existing documents.

Fig-45 is a panel doctor flow chart to create new documents (comments) for the patient.

Fig-46 & 47 is a panel doctor flow chart prepares for transmission ..

Fig-48 is a panel doctor flow chart to send data. Fig-49 is a panel doctor flow chart for ECG phone.

Fig-50 is a panel doctor flow chart for registration of comments .

Fig-51 is a panel doctor flow chart for transfer of files new documents as existing list of files of the patient .

Fig-52 is a panel doctor flow chart for on-line monitoring .

Fig-53 is a panel doctor flow chart for review of new documents received from transmitting center via receiving center.

Fig-54 is a block flow chart for panel doctor.

Fig-55 is a transmit flow chart for gain setting during display of graph (panel doctor) .

Fig-56 is a panel doctor flow chart for freezing of trace during the plotting of delayed trace.

Fig-58 is a panel doctor flow chart for switching of sweep speed of the graph.

Fig-59 is a panel doctor flow chart of increasing & decreasing the upper limit (UL) setting for the patient's heart rate.

Fig-60 is a panel doctor flow chart of increasing & decreasing the lower limit (LL) setting for the patient's heart rate.

Fig-61 is a screen to add panel doctor information such as panel doctor code, panel doctor name, panel doctor E-mail address & phone number.

Fig-62 is a screen shows documents of the patient.

Fig-63 is MRI image of the patient on the screen.

Fig-64 is a screen shows patient's pathological & personal detail.

Fig-65 is a screen at receiving center of selected patient .

Fig-66 is a screen to connect the internet connection.

Fig-67 is a screen shows the stored information of panel doctor.

Fig-68 is a screen live text chatting.

Fig-69 is a screen till the transfer completes. Fig-70 is a screen at the receive terminal in communication mode.

Fig-71 is a screen of patient's pathological & personal detail at the receive terminal.

Fig-72 is the ECG graph displayed on the screen.

Fig-73 is a hand written note displayed on the screen.

At the transmitting center one can contact a doctor any from any where like housel, car 2, Air 3, Park 4, office 5, bus 6, or on the way - a telephone booth 7. At the receiving center panel doctor receive video clip, all reports of the patient like cardiology 13, ophthalmology 14, microbiology 15, pathology 16, CT Scan 17, EEG 18, E & T 20, Dermatology 21. From transmitting center-1 23 or any other transmitting center-N 24 all the documents are transferred to the receiving center 25 where any doctor Drl, Dr2 DrN are available & is so far, if the doctor is not available at the receiving center the documents are transferred to the panel doctor by phone. The documents 27 of the patient such as on-line ECG, pathological reports, CT Scan, MRI, Cath lab, patient's description, text note & other reports on scanned by the scanner 29 & digitally transferred by the database 31 & stored into the computer 30, if the printing is required it can be taken by the printer 28. The other data 33 like video clips, moving images, video conference, audio massage are stored by the digital video camera 32. If patient 37 is far from the transmitting center the lead ECG 36 is sent to the computer of the transmitting center & from there by telephone 34 via satellite 38 it can be (dish or radar or internet or is ISDN) the data of the patient are transferred to the receiving center. The data from the medical data display 39, online ECG 40, service note 41 where collective display at the server 30 of receiving center via network. All documented 27 of the patient can be scanned by the scanner & transferred at server 30. Necessary printings can be taken by printer 28. If patient gives data by telephone 34 these data are transferred by phone line 35 to the server at receiving center. The video clips, moving images, video conference, audio massages of the doctor are taken by video 32. Here doctor analyse & give the expert advice all there can be fed in the server & the data from the receiving center are transferred via satellite 38 to the transmitting center. If doctor is not available at the receiving center the documents of the patient are sent to the panel doctor where ever he is available. By using telephone 34. connection to the panel doctor can be achieved. Documents 27 of the patient sent to the panel doctor 30. Here also the document 27 -are scanned by scanner 29, necessary printing can be received by using printer 28. Again the moving image, video clips, video conference, audio massages are taken by video 32. By using electronic pad 42 doctor can give advice & prescription in his hand writing. All these data are digitally transferred by software 31 & stored at the panel doctor system 30. These all data transferred through satellite 38 to the receiving center & from there to the transmitting cente .

When the system is initialize 43 the display terminal will set download dictionary 46 working directory 47 then the system will check modem 48 & will ask is on-line 49 and if the answer is 'yes' the OK displayed on the screen. The system will ask to input patient no 52 and if from the stored data 59 then display patient's details from the stored data 59 and if not in existing enter patient No. which is = last No.+l 54 then input patient name 55 then input comments for the patient 56 then ask for doctor's name 57BP of patient 58 history of the patient 61 & patient data stored 62. To review the documents of the new patient 64 the system will check the patient number whose comments are received 66 & display the existing personal records for the patient 67. If more patients are there they are received in the form of the directory <dat> 70. The document can be displayed 72, select patient from the list of the patient 74. The list of the document already prepared will be displayed for the selected patient 75. If documents are not enough then input documents to be created 78. These documents could be audio file 77, the text file 81, online ECG file 84 or scanned document, video film, snap shot, hand written note 86. The data now prepared for transmission 88, selected patient from the list displayed 74, the system will select patient the list of document for the selected patient 90. All the documents are displayed via a loop of review 91 & display 71. Now select option prepare & send, the data is prepared via a loop of 92,93,94,63 & 93. Now documents are prepared for transmission. For this open communication program 97. The system will read center code & name 98 till all the patients are transferred successfully 99. Then input patient's No., telephone No. to be dialed, baud rate to be set 100. Then set baud rate 101 & dial 103. The process goes on till the complete massage received 105. For more than one patient the process is placed in the loop. Received data after analyze by expert & the advice & prescription are transferred to the transmitting center. For that wait for the connection till get connected 112. Then wait for the other center password 114, if it is received & authorized 115,116 sent own password 117. If it is received then comments for the connected center present 119 & system will download the comments 118 & wait till " complete massage 104,105. If more data are to be transferred to more then one center there is loop system & the program will ask for the center's name & code. All comments are registered & stored in the directory <receive> move <DAT> directory 79

131. When on-line monitoring 133 starts - select patient from the list displayed 74. History of the patient displayed 134 input patient's pathological data 135 the system will display person's personal data 136

5 then A/D driver will open 137 the A/D channel will be initialized 138 & the loop limit start for input of the data 139. It is stored in the memory buffer 144 & the display will start 153 for plot graph according to the scaling runtime option are to select 152 respectively o gain, CAL, freeze, speed upper limit, lower limit 146 to 151. To transfer all live file to the panel doctor & perform live chat 145. Initialize at 43 then read center code & name 98 till the last patient transferred successfully 99 input patient No. to be transferred,

5 phone number to be dial & baud rate to be transfer 155. Send patient data when connect 156. Including patient pathological person details 162, ECG file 163, increment counter 164. For more than one patient the software is arranged in loop. For review of new i document 64 register the comments 124. Comments are received in the <received> directory 189. Check the patient no. whose comments are received 190. Display the existing personal record of the patient 67 for more then one patient this is situated in the loop 189 to 191. Then select patient no. whose comments are to be reviewed from the list displayed 192. Documents created for the patient are displayed from <dat> directory 193. Newly received comments are displayed from <received> directory 194. New comments of existing patient transfer to existing list of files of the patient though 72,195,129 selected documents can be displayed from 72,71. Panel doctor will now create new documents (comments) for the patient. Here patient is selected 74, list of documents & comments already prepared is displayed 280, and selected documents can be redisplayed 76 & 281. Input the type of comments to be created 282, comments can be audio file 277, text file 278, scanned documents, video files, snap shot, hand written notes 279. These comments from here transferred to the receiving center & from there to the transmitting center.

Table no. 1-17 is the data dictionary an organized listing of all data elements that pertinent to the system with precise regorous definition fir common understanding of inputs & outputs.

Claims

I claim

-

1 An electronic system to consult doctor from any place in the world wherein medical data

5 can be transferred from one place to anywhere in the world.

2 An electronic system as claimed in claim 1, wherein ECG can be transferred from one io place to anywhere in the world.

3 An electronic system as claimed in claim 1 and claim 2 wherein ECG is taken by equation board .

15

4 An electronic system as claimed in claim 2 and claim 3 wherein moving image of ECG is captured live and the required data is digitally transferred and stored on the

20 computer hardware .

5 An electronic system as claimed in claim 1 wherein EEG can be transferred from one place to anywhere in the world.

25

6 An electronic system as claimed in claim 1 and claim 5 wherein The image of the EEG of the patient is scanned by the scanner and stored with patient's other medical .reports .

An electronic system as claimed in claim 1 wherein X-ray can be transferred from one place to anywhere in the world.

An electronic system as claimed in claim 1 and claim 7 wherein the X-ray image of the patient is scanned by the scanner and stored with patient's other medical reports.

An electronic system as claimed in claim 1 wherein CT SCAN can be transferred from one place to anywhere in the world.

An electronic system as claimed in claim 1 and claim 9 wherein the image of the CTSCAN of the patient is scanned by the scanner and stored on the hard disk which can be displayed on thescreen.

An electronic system as claimed in claim 1 wherein MRI can be transferred from one place to anywhere in the world.

An electronic system as claimed in claim 1 and claim 11 wherein the MRI image of the patient is scanned by the scanner and stored with patient's othermedical reports.

An electronic system as claimed in claim 1 wherein Pathological reports can be transferred from one place to anywhere in the world.

An electronic system as claimed in claim 1 and claim 13 wherein pathological reports are scanned by the scanner and stored with the other reports of the patient.

An electronic system as claimed in claim 1 wherein microscopy slide image can be transferred from one place to anywhere in the world.

An electronic system as claimed in claim 1 and claim 15 wherein microscopy slide image is taken by microscope connected with camera.

An electronic system as claimed in claim 1 wherein patient's video and audio can be transferred from one place to anywhere in the world.

An electronic system as claimed in claim 1 and claim 17 wherein patient's video and audio is taken by digital camera. An electronic system as claimed in claim 1 wherein patient's history by type note or hand written note and other documents can be transferred from one place to anywhere in the world.

An electronic system as claimed in claim 19 wherein patient's history by type note is written by using key board.

An electronic system as claimed in claim 19 wherein hand written note is written by using electronic pad.

An electronic system as claimed in claim 1 wherein the opinion of the doctor transferred from the receiving center to the transmitting center.

An electronic system as claimed in claim 1 wherein system tracing doctor if doctor is not available at the receiving center.

An electronic system as claimed in claim 23 wherein system of transferring the data from the receiving center to the panel doctor wherever he is on connection by the phone.

An electronic system as claimed in claim 24 wherein system of transfer of opinion to the receiving center by a doctor. An electronic system as claimed in claim 1 wherein the system of transferring opinion from the receiving center to the transmitting center.

An electronic system as claimed in claim 1 wherein the computer program of main circuit of transmitting center substantially as described as in accompanying figures from 7 to 27.

An electronic system as claimed in claim 1 wherein the computer program of main circuit of receiving center substantially as described as in accompanying figures from 28 to 32.

An electronic system as claimed in claim Iwherein the computer program of main circuit of panel doctor substantially as described as in accompanying figures from 33 to 73.

The electronic system substantially as herein before described with reference to the accompanying drawings .