JPH06233744A - At-home medical treatment support system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To deal with emergency at low cost by providing an at-home communication equipment for transmitting the medical treatment information of an at-home patient to an information collecting center, medical treatment information collector for converting this signal into a chart or a character and transmitting it to a hospital and facsimile means for receiving this information at the hospital and connecting these devices by a public telephone line. CONSTITUTION:The medical treatment information is fetched into a communication equipment 10 installed at home and transmitted through a public telephone line 51 to a computer 31 installed at an information collecting center 30 by a modem. A modem 32 is connected to the computer 31, and thus, the medical treatment information can be communicated with each home. This medical treatment information is recorded and managed at a large capacity storage device 34, and this information in the form of a character string or numerical value sequence quantizing an electrocardiogram waveform, etc., is image- converted to the format of a report and transmitted from a facsimile 33 connected to the computer through a public telephone line 52 to a facsimile 41 installed at a hospital 40 attended by the patient.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a home therapy support system relating to medical information and medical instruments for various diseases which require treatment at home for a long period of time, such as a patient performing home oxygen therapy.

[0002]

2. Description of the Prior Art Patients with chronic diseases such as respiratory diseases, high blood pressure, and diabetes that require long-term treatment should be treated regularly based on the doctor's prescription, or periodically or according to the symptoms at that time. He manages his health by going to the hospital. In this case, there are considerable problems for the doctor to accurately grasp the health condition and compliance of the patient and to give appropriate guidance.

[0003] For example, in the case of a home oxygen therapy patient, his / her physical strength is exhausted during an outpatient visit, and blood oxygen saturation is lower than normal during regular diagnosis. For patients living in mountainous areas and remote islands, the physical burden of going to the hospital is a problem. It is also important for the doctor to make a diagnosis as to whether or not the patient is inhaling the high-concentration oxygen generated from the oxygen concentrator according to the prescription.

In response to such a problem, various systems have been proposed for managing the health condition of patients and the use status of medical devices by utilizing computer communication.

As an example disclosed in the publication, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 4-1
No. 5035 (home care support system), Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2-
There are JP-A-246464 (inspection information transmission system), JP-A-63-252137 (electronic device for medical diagnosis) and JP-A-63-79443 (human health monitor).

[0006]

However, in these conventional systems, there are problems that the device cost becomes very high when the system is put into practical use, and the operation after the system is introduced is difficult.

That is, in general, the system configuration is such that the biological information relating to the physiology of a home patient is directly transmitted from the device installed in the patient's home to the computer of the information collection center installed in the hospital. On the hospital side,
You must own a computer. However, since most hospitals have 10 to 100 or less patients, it is often hesitant to introduce a dedicated computer.

Further, in the case of a system in which a commercially available facsimile is installed on the hospital side, it is necessary for an apparatus installed in a patient's home to have an image conversion function and a facsimile transmission function, which is not cost effective. Furthermore, in order to perform a diagnosis over time, when a memory function for recording the patient's biological information for a long period of time is required, the computer must be installed in the hospital side as well.

On the other hand, for patients who continue to receive treatment at home, in addition to their daily physical condition, a thermometer, a simple electrocardiograph, a blood oxygen saturation meter, and the like are used for measurement, and the results are recorded in a medical treatment diary. . This will be presented to a doctor when going to the hospital for diagnosis, but in reality there are many problems as follows. That is, the patient should continue to write a medical treatment diary accurately every day, operate the measuring instrument correctly and store the result, the frequency of hospital visits, and the response to sudden changes in condition.

To solve this problem, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 4-56561
Although system proposals such as Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 4-15035 and Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 4-15035 are disclosed, it is necessary to install a computer at an information center on the hospital side, and the overall system cost increases.

[0011]

OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION The object of the present invention is to solve the above-mentioned conventional problems. The object of the present invention is to reduce the number of times a patient visits a hospital, fill in a medical diary, and reduce the burden of physical condition measurement in home treatment of various diseases. In addition to providing an emergency response in the event of sudden changes in physical condition,
It is to provide a home therapy support system at a lower cost than before.

[0012]

The present invention relates to a home-communication device which is arranged in each patient's home and includes a transmitting means for transmitting to a data collection center via a signal of medical information relating to physiological information of the home-patient. , A receiving unit arranged at the information collecting center for receiving a signal relating to medical information transmitted from the home communication device, and for converting the received signal into a chart and character information suitable for diagnosis A medical information collecting device equipped with a signal converting means and a facsimile means for transmitting the chart and character information converted by the signal converting means to a hospital;
A chart and character information receiving apparatus suitable for diagnosis, including a facsimile means for receiving the chart and character information transmitted from the medical information collecting apparatus, the home communication apparatus, the medical information collecting apparatus, and the chart And a home telephone support system comprising a public telephone line connecting with a character information receiving device.

It is expected that such a home therapy support system can easily realize at low cost the vital information from a home patient to be processed and transmitted to each hospital.

In addition to the medical information signal, the system of the present invention may include a signal of information relating to the medical device for treating the home patient and / or its operation, if necessary. Home care support system is included. With this home therapy support system, the operating state of the medical device for treatment can be comprehended as well.
There is an advantage that the doctor can easily grasp the usage status of the device by the patient in the home treatment using the respiratory gas supply device as described in Japanese Patent No. 143451.

[0015]

In the present invention, medical data from the patient's home is delivered to the doctor in charge by facsimile via the information collection center. Since the center computer performs high-level processing such as statistical processing of data, image conversion, and database management, the functions of the communication device installed in the patient's home can be simplified. In addition, a low-priced modem that can transmit data via a telephone line can be used, which is about the same price as personal computer communication that has become popular in recent years. On the other hand, it is not necessary to install a special receiving device in the hospital, and commercially available facsimiles can be used, so not only does the system cost a fixed price from the past, but also in a hospital that treats several home patients, It has become possible to implement the home therapy support system according to the present invention.

[0016]

1 and 2 show an embodiment of the present invention. Figure 1
Shows the overall configuration, and FIG. 2 shows the details of the communication device (10) installed at home.

In FIG. 1, (1) is a home where the patient lives, and the patient performs home oxygen therapy while inhaling a high concentration of oxygen from the oxygen concentrator (3).

Although details will be described later, in addition to the operation information of the oxygen concentrator, medical information such as patient inquiry information, respiratory rate, blood oxygen saturation, pulse rate, electrocardiographic waveform, etc., is taken into the communication device. These pieces of information are transmitted to the computer (31) installed in the information collection center (30) by the modem (12) via the public telephone line (51). A modem (32) is connected to the computer, which enables medical information communication with each home. The medical information sent from each home is stored in a large-capacity storage device (3
It is recorded and managed in 4).

Here, the stored medical information of each patient is
The following three types of reports are prepared according to the intended use. That is, an emergency report, a regular report, and a monthly report. The form of information sent from homes is a character string or a numerical value sequence obtained by quantizing an electrocardiographic waveform, etc., so these information are image-converted into the report format described above and displayed on a computer. Connected Facsimile (33)
Is transmitted to the facsimile (41) installed in the hospital (40) where the patient visits via the public telephone line (52) and delivered to the doctor in charge.

Next, the communication device (10) will be described with reference to FIG. The communication device includes a CPU (11), a modem (12) for performing data communication with a computer of an information center through a public telephone line, and a communication interface (13) for receiving device operation information from the oxygen concentrator (3). , An interface (14) for connecting a sensor (4) for detecting the respiration rate of the patient, and a detection probe (5) attached to the finger of the patient
A measuring unit (15) for connecting to each other to measure blood oxygen saturation and pulse rate, and an interface (16) for receiving electrocardiographic waveform data measured by a simple electrocardiograph (6) by optical transmission,
Liquid crystal graphic display (1) for interacting with patients
7) and touch panel (18), calendar function unit (19) for time management, sound generation unit (10) such as buzzer, and push button (21) for starting medical data measurement
Composed of.

The communication device informs the patient of the time of measurement from the sound generation unit at a fixed time by the calendar function, and prompts the patient to input the inquiry data regarding the physical condition and to perform the physical condition measurement using the measuring instrument. do. The patient inputs the inquiry result while operating the touch panel from the questions regarding appetite, body temperature, etc. displayed on the liquid crystal display and prepared answer items. After that, the respiratory rate, blood oxygen saturation, pulse rate, and electrocardiogram are continuously measured according to the instructions on the liquid crystal display screen. Finally, by inputting whether or not the measurement result should be urgently delivered to the doctor, one medical data measurement is completed. On the other hand, the operation information from the oxygen concentrator is always taken in by the communication device, and usage time information for each set flow rate effective for confirming patient compliance is generated. Further, if the patient is inconvenient at the fixed time, the same medical data measurement as described above can be performed temporarily by the push button (21). Measurement of electrocardiogram, etc. using a measuring instrument, and conducting all items such as interviews several times a day will greatly increase the burden on the patient, so necessary items are required according to the patient's convenience. The program considers the measurement procedure to be performed at a high frequency.

Next, the report to the doctor will be described.

The urgent report corresponds to the case where the patient urgently wants to send the measurement result to the doctor. Upon receipt of the measurement result, the computer of the information collecting center records the measurement result in the storage device and then immediately converts the measurement result into an emergency report and transmits it to the doctor via the facsimile. At this time, the doctor can carry out more appropriate diagnosis and treatment by giving the measurement result for the last few days for several days and creating a report.

In the regular report, the measurement results from the patient are aggregated into a report for a certain period of time, and the report is sent to the doctor during the doctor's working hours (usually in the morning of the next morning). Although the duration is individually decided according to the patient's symptoms, it is usually a daily cycle, and a stable patient may have a 3 to 7 day cycle.

The monthly report (1) is a report in which the measurement results from the patient are aggregated for one month, and a change graph for one month can be grasped, for example, a report including a trend graph of blood oxygen concentration. It is a calligraphy.

[0026]

As described above, according to the present invention,
Patients can perform in-home interviews and physical condition measurements using measuring instruments, which were previously possible only in hospitals. This reduces physical consumption due to going to the hospital and allows the doctor to know the measurement data in a normal state. Also, when the physical condition changes, the doctor can decide the prescription based on the emergency report. In this way, this system is a necessary and indispensable system in today's society, where patients can carry out home therapy with more peace of mind and the number of patients who carry out home therapy is increasing in the future.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is an illustration of a preferred specific embodiment of the overall configuration of a home therapy support system of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a view showing an example of a preferred specific embodiment of a home communication device installed at home in the home therapy support system of the present invention.

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. An in-home communication device, which is arranged in each patient's home and has a transmitting means for transmitting to a data collection center via a signal of medical information relating to physiological information of the in-home patient,
Receiving means arranged in the information collecting center for receiving a signal relating to medical information transmitted from the home communication device, and a signal for converting the received signal into a chart and character information suitable for diagnosis. A medical information collecting apparatus equipped with a converting unit and a facsimile unit for transmitting the chart and the character information converted by the signal converting unit to a hospital, and the medical information collecting apparatus disposed in the hospital and transmitted from the medical information collecting apparatus. A device for receiving a chart and character information suitable for diagnosis, which is equipped with a facsimile means for receiving the chart and the character information, and the home communication device, the medical information collecting device, and the device for receiving the chart and character information. Home therapy support system consisting of public telephone lines. 2. The home-based therapy according to claim 1, wherein, in addition to the signal of the medical information, a signal of information related to the medical device for treating the home patient and / or its operation may be included, if necessary. Support system.