TAILORED ADVICE FOR COPD PATIENTS

Telehealth was introduced as a promising service to support integrated care in management of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Implementation of telehealth is geared towards improving self-management and providing remote support for continuous disease management. However, it is currently not clear where telehealth services fit into existing pathways for COPD disease management. This exploratory study aims to identify the practices of clinical stakeholders along a Greek clinical care pathway for COPD, detail the challenges of those practices, and to identify where telehealth solutions may be implemented to reduce clinical resource utilization.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention pertains to a method and apparatus for monitoring and controlling a pressure support device, and, in particular, a program that is tailored to provide a patient with information relevant for the specific needs of that patient.

2. Description of the Related Art

Managing diseases like COPD can be quite complex and physicians face the challenge that they have to focus their precious time on few educational topics when they see the patient. Even then, they cannot be sure that the patient is following the advice. While there are solutions out there that offer the patient to review the information and learn even more at home they lack personalization taking into account the already given advice by the physician, the environment and the personal situation of the patient at home.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The proposed solution automatically composes a tailored program with information to be reviewed provided by the physician and adding new information that is relevant for the patient and context specific.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EXEMPLARY EMBODIMENTS

The proposed solution, which is illustrated schematically inFIG. 1, includes a microphone situated in the location where the physician instructs the patient to record the conversation. The recorded conversation is transferred to a processor that converts it to written text and then analyses its content, for example, by pre-defined keywords, extracts patient-specific information such as amount of medication and structures the extracted content by clustering it to identify addressed topics in the next step.

The content clusters are compared to pre-defined content modules that cover the various information items a patient needs to learn. This can be achieved, for example, by comparing key words and their synonyms that reflect content that needs to be addressed in the modules. For each module that is covered by one of the content clusters, the system remembers that it has been covered by the physician along with the patient-specific information.

The solution further contains one or more information sharing interfaces at the patient's home such as loudspeakers or screens. Once at home the system offers the patient the information covered by the physician for review. Each module also contains tests such as multiple-choice tests that the patient needs to answer to check his understanding. Those modules with lower test results are repeated more often than others.

In addition, the system can offer new information based on content modules that have not been covered by the physician but that are relevant for the patient. To this end, the content modules are marked as either mandatory because they are relevant for all patients (within a disease-specific sub-group) or as optional and assigned attributes that indicate context-specific relevance.

For example, a module advising the patient not to leave the accommodation if it is hot outside could be marked with the attribute ‘outside temperature larger 28° C.’. Another module could have the attribute ‘fireplace turned on’ and offers specific information for owners of a fireplace that is in use. To offer such relevant information at the right time the system is connected to data sources that provide context information such as current or forecasted weather, location of accommodation, activity trackers, . . . . These data sources can be added and removed dynamically based on their availability.

Collecting the information shared by the physician can alternatively or in combination also happen by text that the physician enters in a system dedicated for the described system or another system he uses like the electronic medical record (EMR). One specific source of information would be extracted from a multitude of pictures taken at the patient's home. Those pictures are analyzed by image- and object-recognition software to detect items that appear in the content modules' attributes such as a fireplace.

Instead of at home reviewing and getting new information can also happen in other locations such as the hospital. In another embodiment informal care givers can be included by receiving the information that the patient needs to review and share it with patient.