Patents Assigned to First Opinion Corporation
  • Patent number: 6849045
    Abstract: A system and method for providing computerized, knowledge-based medical diagnostic and treatment advice. The medical advice is provided to the general public over networks, such as a telephone network or a computer network. The invention also includes a stand-alone embodiment that may utilize occasional connectivity to a central computer by use of a network, such as the Internet. New authoring languages, interactive voice response and speech recognition are used to enable expert and general practitioner knowledge to be encoded for access by the public. “Meta” functions for time-density analysis of a number of factors regarding the number of medical complaints per unit of time are an integral part of the system. A re-enter feature monitors the user's changing condition over time. A symptom severity analysis helps to respond to the changing conditions. System sensitivity factors may be changed at a global level or other levels to adjust the system advice as necessary.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 19, 2002
    Date of Patent: February 1, 2005
    Assignee: First Opinion Corporation
    Inventor: Edwin C. Iliff
  • Patent number: 6817980
    Abstract: Structure-based processing includes a method of diagnosing diseases that works by arranging diseases, symptoms, and questions into a set of related disease, symptom, and question structures, such as objects or lists, in such a way that the structures can be processed to generate a dialogue with a patient. A structure-based processing system organizes medical knowledge into formal structures and then executes those structures on a structure engine to automatically select the next question. Patient responses to the questions lead to more questions and ultimately to a diagnosis. An object-oriented embodiment includes software objects utilized as active, intelligent agents where each object performs its own tasks and calls upon other objects to perform their tasks at the appropriate time to arrive at a diagnosis.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 27, 2003
    Date of Patent: November 16, 2004
    Assignee: First Opinion Corporation
    Inventor: Edwin C. Iliff
  • Patent number: 6770029
    Abstract: One aspect of the invention is directed to a system and method for allowing a patient to access an automated process for managing a specified health problem called a disease. The system performs disease management in a fully automated manner, using periodic interactive dialogs with the patient to obtain health state measurements from the patient, to evaluate and assess the progress of the patient's disease, to review and adjust therapy to optimal levels, and to give the patient medical advice for administering treatment and handling symptom flare-ups and acute episodes of the disease. The medical records are updated, the progression of the disease is stored and tracked, and the patient's preferences for treatment are stored and then used to offer medical advice based on the current state of the disease. Subjective and objective health measurements are used to determine a metric, which can be used to adjust patient therapy.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 13, 2003
    Date of Patent: August 3, 2004
    Assignee: First Opinion Corporation
    Inventor: Edwin C. Iliff
  • Patent number: 6767325
    Abstract: Structure-based processing includes a method of diagnosing diseases that works by arranging diseases, symptoms, and questions into a set of related disease, symptom, and question structures, such as objects or lists, in such a way that the structures can be processed to generate a dialogue with a patient. A structure-based processing system organizes medical knowledge into formal structures and then executes those structures on a structure engine to automatically select the next question. Patient responses to the questions lead to more questions and ultimately to a diagnosis. An object-oriented embodiment includes software objects utilized as active, intelligent agents where each object performs its own tasks and calls upon other objects to perform their tasks at the appropriate time to arrive at a diagnosis.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 22, 2002
    Date of Patent: July 27, 2004
    Assignee: First Opinion Corporation
    Inventor: Edwin C. Iliff
  • Patent number: 6764447
    Abstract: Structure-based processing includes a method of diagnosing diseases that works by arranging diseases, symptoms, and questions into a set of related disease, symptom, and question structures, such as objects or lists, in such a way that the structures can be processed to generate a dialogue with a patient. A structure-based processing system organizes medical knowledge into formal structures and then executes those structures on a structure engine to automatically select the next question. Patient responses to the questions lead to more questions and ultimately to a diagnosis. An object-oriented embodiment includes software objects utilized as active, intelligent agents where each object performs its own tasks and calls upon other objects to perform their tasks at the appropriate time to arrive at a diagnosis.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 4, 2003
    Date of Patent: July 20, 2004
    Assignee: First Opinion Corporation
    Inventor: Edwin C. Iliff
  • Patent number: 6748353
    Abstract: A system and method for providing computerized, knowledge-based medical diagnostic and treatment advice. The medical advice is provided to the general public over a telephone network. Two new authoring languages, interactive voice response and speech recognition are used to enable expert and general practitioner knowledge to be encoded for access by the public. “Meta” functions for time-density analysis of a number of factors regarding the number of medical complaints per unit of time are an integral part of the system. A semantic discrepancy evaluator routine along with a mental status examination are used to detect the consciousness level of a user of the system. A re-enter feature monitors the user's changing condition over time. A symptom severity analysis helps to respond to the changing conditions. System sensitivity factors may be changed at a global level or other levels to adjust the system advice as necessary.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 8, 1999
    Date of Patent: June 8, 2004
    Assignee: First Opinion Corporation
    Inventor: Edwin C. Iliff
  • Patent number: 6746399
    Abstract: Structure-based processing includes a method of diagnosing diseases that works by arranging diseases, symptoms, and questions into a set of related disease, symptom, and question structures, such as objects or lists, in such a way that the structures can be processed to generate a dialogue with a patient. A structure-based processing system organizes medical knowledge into formal structures and then executes those structures on a structure engine to automatically select the next question. Patient responses to the questions lead to more questions and ultimately to a diagnosis. An object-oriented embodiment includes software objects utilized as active, intelligent agents where each object performs its own tasks and calls upon other objects to perform their tasks at the appropriate time to arrive at a diagnosis.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 5, 2002
    Date of Patent: June 8, 2004
    Assignee: First Opinion Corporation
    Inventor: Edwin C. Iliff
  • Patent number: 6730027
    Abstract: Structure-based processing includes a method of diagnosing diseases that works by arranging diseases, symptoms, and questions into a set of related disease, symptom, and question structures, such as objects or lists, in such a way that the structures can be processed to generate a dialogue with a patient. A structure-based processing system organizes medical knowledge into formal structures and then executes those structures on a structure engine to automatically select the next question. Patient responses to the questions lead to more questions and ultimately to a diagnosis. An object-oriented embodiment includes software objects utilized as active, intelligent agents where each object performs its own tasks and calls upon other objects to perform their tasks at the appropriate time to arrive at a diagnosis.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 24, 2003
    Date of Patent: May 4, 2004
    Assignee: First Opinion Corporation
    Inventor: Edwin C. Iliff
  • Patent number: 6725209
    Abstract: A system and method for providing computerized, knowledge-based medical diagnostic and treatment advice. The medical advice is provided to the general public over a telephone network. Two new authoring languages, interactive voice response and speech recognition are used to enable expert and general practitioner knowledge to be encoded for access by the public. “Meta” functions for time-density analysis of a number of factors regarding the number of medical complaints per unit of time are an integral part of the system. A semantic discrepancy evaluator routine along with a mental status examination are used to detect the consciousness level of a user of the system. A re-enter feature monitors the user's changing condition over time. A symptom severity analysis helps to respond to the changing conditions. System sensitivity factors may be changed at a global level or other levels to adjust the system advice as necessary.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 6, 2000
    Date of Patent: April 20, 2004
    Assignee: First Opinion Corporation
    Inventor: Edwin C. Iliff
  • Patent number: 6641532
    Abstract: A system and method for providing computerized, knowledge-based medical diagnostic advice. The medical advice is provided to the general public over a network, such as a telephone network with the use of a telephone or the Internet with the use of an Internet access device. Alternatively, the medical advice can be provided to a patient in a stand-alone mode by use of a computer. The invention utilizes a list-based processing method of generating and executing diagnostic scripts. For the purpose of diagnosing a health problem of a patient, medical knowledge is organized into a list of the diseases to be considered. Each disease on the disease list includes a list of symptoms that is checked in a patient. Each symptom on the symptom list is then further described as a response to a list of one or more questions asked of the patient about the symptom. This triply-nested list structure is converted by suitable data structure transformations into a script that is stored.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 7, 2001
    Date of Patent: November 4, 2003
    Assignee: First Opinion Corporation
    Inventor: Edwin C. Iliff
  • Patent number: 6569093
    Abstract: Structure-based processing includes a method of diagnosing diseases that works by arranging diseases, symptoms, and questions into a set of related disease, symptom, and question structures, such as objects or lists, in such a way that the structures can be processed to generate a dialogue with a patient. A structure-based processing system organizes medical knowledge into formal structures and then executes those structures on a structure engine to automatically select the next question. Patient responses to the questions lead to more questions and ultimately to a diagnosis. An object-oriented embodiment includes software objects utilized as active, intelligent agents where each object performs its own tasks and calls upon other objects to perform their tasks at the appropriate time to arrive at a diagnosis.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 14, 2001
    Date of Patent: May 27, 2003
    Assignee: First Opinion Corporation
    Inventor: Edwin C. Iliff
  • Patent number: 6527713
    Abstract: Structure-based processing includes a method of diagnosing diseases that works by arranging diseases, symptoms, and questions into a set of related disease, symptom, and question structures, such as objects or lists, in such a way that the structures can be processed to generate a dialogue with a patient. A structure-based processing system organizes medical knowledge into formal structures and then executes those structures on a structure engine to automatically select the next question. Patient responses to the questions lead to more questions and ultimately to a diagnosis. An object-oriented embodiment includes software objects utilized as active, intelligent agents where each object performs its own tasks and calls upon other objects to perform their tasks at the appropriate time to arrive at a diagnosis.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 14, 2001
    Date of Patent: March 4, 2003
    Assignee: First Opinion Corporation
    Inventor: Edwin C. Iliff
  • Patent number: 6524241
    Abstract: Structure-based processing includes a method of diagnosing diseases that works by arranging diseases, symptoms, and questions into a set of related disease, symptom, and question structures, such as objects or lists, in such a way that the structures can be processed to generate a dialogue with a patient. A structure-based processing system organizes medical knowledge into formal structures and then executes those structures on a structure engine to automatically select the next question. Patient responses to the questions lead to more questions and ultimately to a diagnosis. An object-oriented embodiment includes software objects utilized as active, intelligent agents where each object performs its own tasks and calls upon other objects to perform their tasks at the appropriate time to arrive at a diagnosis.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 14, 2001
    Date of Patent: February 25, 2003
    Assignee: First Opinion Corporation
    Inventor: Edwin C. Iliff
  • Patent number: 6482156
    Abstract: A system and method for providing computerized, knowledge-based medical diagnostic and treatment advice. The medical advice is provided to the general public over networks, such as a telephone network or a computer network. The invention also includes a stand-alone embodiment that may utilize occasional connectivity to a central computer by use of a network, such as the Internet. Two new authoring languages, interactive voice response and speech recognition are used to enable expert and general practitioner knowledge to be encoded for access by the public. “Meta” functions for time-density analysis of a number of factors regarding the number of medical complaints per unit of time are an integral part of the system. A re-enter feature monitors the user's changing condition over time. A symptom severity analysis helps to respond to the changing conditions. System sensitivity factors may be changed at a global level or other levels to adjust the system advice as necessary.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 5, 2001
    Date of Patent: November 19, 2002
    Assignee: First Opinion Corporation
    Inventor: Edwin C. Iliff
  • Patent number: 6475143
    Abstract: Structure-based processing includes a method of diagnosing diseases that works by arranging diseases, symptoms, and questions into a set of related disease, symptom, and question structures, such as objects or lists, in such a way that the structures can be processed to generate a dialogue with a patient. A structure-based processing system organizes medical knowledge into formal structures and then executes those structures on a structure engine to automatically select the next question. Patient responses to the questions lead to more questions and ultimately to a diagnosis. An object-oriented embodiment includes software objects utilized as active, intelligent agents where each object performs its own tasks and calls upon other objects to perform their tasks at the appropriate time to arrive at a diagnosis.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 14, 2001
    Date of Patent: November 5, 2002
    Assignee: First Opinion Corporation
    Inventor: Edwin C. Iliff
  • Patent number: 6468210
    Abstract: Structure-based processing includes a method of diagnosing diseases that works by arranging diseases, symptoms, and questions into a set of related disease, symptom, and question structures, such as objects or lists, in such a way that the structures can be processed to generate a dialogue with a patient. A structure-based processing system organizes medical knowledge into formal structures and then executes those structures on a structure engine to automatically select the next question. Patient responses to the questions lead to more questions and ultimately to a diagnosis. An object-oriented embodiment includes software objects utilized as active, intelligent agents where each object performs its own tasks and calls upon other objects to perform their tasks at the appropriate time to arrive at a diagnosis.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 14, 2001
    Date of Patent: October 22, 2002
    Assignee: First Opinion Corporation
    Inventor: Edwin C. Iliff
  • Patent number: 6270456
    Abstract: A system and method for providing computerized, knowledge-based medical diagnostic advice. The medical advice is provided to the general public over a network, such as a telephone network with the use of a telephone or the Internet with the use of an Internet access device. Alternatively, the medical advice can be provided to a patient in a stand-alone mode by use of a computer. The invention utilizes a list-based processing method of generating and executing diagnostic scripts. For the purpose of diagnosing a health problem of a patient, medical knowledge is organized into a list of the diseases to be considered. Each disease on the disease list includes a list of symptoms that is checked in a patient. Each symptom on the symptom list is then further described as a response to a list of one or more questions asked of the patient about the symptom. This triply-nested list structure is converted by suitable data structure transformations into a script that is stored.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 7, 1999
    Date of Patent: August 7, 2001
    Assignee: First Opinion Corporation
    Inventor: Edwin C. Iliff
  • Patent number: 6234964
    Abstract: One aspect of the invention is directed to a system and method for automated knowledge-based, long-term patient disease management. Disease management is directed to the continuing medical care of a patient who has been diagnosed with a specified health problem called a disease. The system performs disease management in a fully automated manner, using periodic interactive dialogs with the patient to obtain health state measurements from the patient, to evaluate and assess the progress of the patient's disease, to review and adjust therapy to optimal levels, and to give the patient medical advice for administering treatment and handling symptom flare-ups and acute episodes of the disease. One goal of the disease management system is to promote patient health in an automated manner that reduces costly medical intervention. Various features of the system are specifically designed to accumulate and use patient-specific information, so that disease management can be tailored to each individual case.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 13, 1998
    Date of Patent: May 22, 2001
    Assignee: First Opinion Corporation
    Inventor: Edwin C. Iliff
  • Patent number: 6206829
    Abstract: A system and method for providing computerized, knowledge-based medical diagnostic and treatment advice. The medical advice is provided to the general public over networks, such as a telephone network or a computer network. The invention also includes a stand-alone embodiment that may utilize occasional connectivity to a central computer by use of a network, such as the Internet. Two new authoring languages, interactive voice response and speech recognition are used to enable expert and general practitioner knowledge to be encoded for access by the public. “Meta” functions for time-density analysis of a number of factors regarding the number of medical complaints per unit of time are an integral part of the system. A re-enter feature monitors the user's changing condition over time. A symptom severity analysis helps to respond to the changing conditions. System sensitivity factors may be changed at a global level or other levels to adjust the system advice as necessary.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 17, 1999
    Date of Patent: March 27, 2001
    Assignee: First Opinion Corporation
    Inventor: Edwin C. Iliff
  • Patent number: 6113540
    Abstract: A system and method for providing computerized, knowledge-based medical diagnostic and treatment advice. The medical advice is provided to the general public over a telephone network. Two new authoring languages, interactive voice response and speech recognition are used to enable expert and general practitioner knowledge to be encoded for access by the public. "Meta" functions for time-density analysis of a number of factors regarding the number of medical complaints per unit of time are an integral part of the system. A semantic discrepancy evaluator routine along with a mental status examination are used to detect the consciousness level of a user of the system. A re-enter feature monitors the user's changing condition over time. A symptom severity analysis helps to respond to the changing conditions. System sensitivity factors may be changed at a global level or other levels to adjust the system advice as necessary.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 23, 1999
    Date of Patent: September 5, 2000
    Assignee: First Opinion Corporation
    Inventor: Edwin C. Iliff