Patent Publication Number: US-2005119917-A1

Title: Unified medical information management system and method thereof

Description:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS  
      This U.S. non-provisional patent application claims priority under 35 U.S.C. § 119 of Korean Patent Application 2003-85643 filed on Nov. 28, 2003, the entire contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference. 
    
    
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
      The present invention is concerned with medical information management, specifically with a unified medical information management system and method for sharing and utilizing medical information that includes personal diagnosis and treatment records in conjunction with medical facilities and their associated companies, as well as interfacing medical records between the medical facilities and personal communication apparatuses by way of a communication network.  
      When a person is being treated in medical attention, a medical staff usually manages patient&#39;s diagnosis and treatment information by writing it on paper or storing it in a personal computer. The patient takes a prescription from a physician and then obtains a prescribed medicine from a drugstore in compliance with the prescription.  
      Meanwhile, the recent technical advancement and generality of communication apparatuses such as personal computers, mobile communication terminals, and so on is increasingly influencing overall affairs in society, even extending to medical fields, leading to actively progress developments for medical information technologies beginning with studies about inter-hospital networks for ‘paperless hospital’ and their relevant sides.  
      As medical information standard for networking among medical facilities, there is HL7 (Health Level 7). The HL7, as a set of rules that enables information to be exchangeable between software applications of different health and medical fields, is ranking as a global standard over the world, by which it is available to utilize all kinds of medical affair services regardless of types and scales of medical facilities. In other words, the HL7 is a network standard capable of sharing diagnosis and treatment information of patients.  
      The protocol of the HL7 specifies elements such a message structure, a coding rule, and a trigger event. Here, the message structure means an abstract definition of a message, the coding rule sets forms of message expression for transmission, and the trigger event means an application event to make a message generated. In the HL7, if there is an event by the trigger event, a networking route is established, through a network, among al least more than two systems to execute a data exchange operation by the event. Then, after completing a data transfer with a message type from one system to the other system, the receiving system sends a acknowledge message confirming safe receipt to the sending system and thereby one cycle is terminated.  
      The HL7 defines messages involved in various duties provided by medical facilities, such as patient affair managements, inquiries, prescriptions, and reports of observation records for prescription and clinical results, product experiments, waveform results, requests of patients, financial managements, scheduling, and so on.  
      As such, the HL7 is used to share diagnosis and treatment information about patients, which may provide higher-quality services for patients and expectably contribute to advancement of the medical science on the basis of the serious diagnosis and treatment effects.  
      However, the current networking between medical facilities is on a level of just sharing information among medical facilities and does not provide individuals with ways of independently managing personal medical records themselves. If a patient has an allergy to a specific drug, it is necessary for the patient to inform a medical staff of the allergic symptoms when he is diagnosed and treated or requiring of compounding medicines in compliance with a prescription. Such an action may be repeated every time there are diagnosis and treatment.  
      Moreover, it is inconvenience for a patient having more than two diseases to surely inform a medical staff of what kinds of diseases he catches and what kinds of medicines he takes. Unless such notices are properly conducted, there may be troubles such as a bad effect on the patient or a medical accident.  
      Further, in case that patient take medicines other than prescribed by a physician, they have the difficulty and inconvenience in verifying whether those medicines are good for their diseases and it may happen the misuses and abuses of medical products and social problems therefrom.  
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
      The present invention is directed to solve the aforementioned problems and demerits, providing a unified medical information management system and method for storing personal medical information in individual home systems from medical facilities and if necessary, referring to the personal medical information stored in the home systems.  
      The present invention provides a unified medical information management system and method for inputting resultant data of diagnosis and treatment by medical facilities into an individual home system and verifying the validity of the result of the diagnosis and treatment by means of an intelligent decision supporting system, which prevents medical accidents in advance.  
      The present invention provides a unified medical information management system and method for obtaining statistical materials and resultant data of diagnosis and treatment for serious diseases, as well as offering high-quality medical services to patients, by sharing patients&#39; medical information by way of network communication among medical facilities.  
      The present invention provides a unified medical information management system and method for enabling medical services focusing on individuals and pedigrees in accordance with management for family case records and gathering fundamental materials to transfer the pattern of medical service to an individual-specified medical treatment era from a symptomatic medical treatment era by accumulating, storing, and managing heritable information for the development of remedies.  
      A unified medical information management system according to the present invention includes: a plurality of medical facility data terminal associated with a communication interface and storing diagnosis and treatment information of a patient; and a medical information management home system receiving individual diagnosis and treatment information from the medical facility data terminal by way of the communication interface. The medical facility data terminal transfers the coded diagnosis and treatment information in a predetermined form of message. The medical information management home system includes: a database for storing the diagnosis and treatment information; and an exclusive coding and decoding processor for decoding the coded diagnosis and treatment information transferred from the medical facility data terminal.  
      It is available that the medical facility data terminal transfers the diagnosis and treatment information to a personal portable terminal and the portable terminal transfers the diagnosis and treatment information to the medical information management home system of individual. 
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
      The accompanying drawings are included to provide a further understanding of the invention, and are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification. The drawings illustrate exemplary embodiments of the present invention and, together with the description, serve to explain principles of the present invention. In the drawings:  
       FIG. 1  is a block diagram illustrating the structure of a unified medical information management system in accordance with the present invention;  
       FIG. 2  is a block diagram illustrating the structure of a medical facility data terminal shown in  FIG. 1 ;  
       FIG. 3  is a flow chart explaining a method of unified medical information management in accordance with the present invention;  
       FIG. 4  is a flow chart explaining a method of storing medical information in accordance with the present invention;  
       FIG. 5  is a block diagram illustrating exemplary composition of a network for sharing information among medical facility data terminals shown in  FIG. 1 ;  
       FIG. 6  is a block diagram illustrating another exemplary composition of a network for sharing information among medical facility data terminals shown in  FIG. 1 ;  
       FIG. 7  is a flow chart explaining a method of sharing information in the network shown in  FIG. 5 ;  
       FIG. 8  is a flow chart explaining a method of sharing information in the network shown in  FIG. 6 ;  
       FIG. 9  is a block diagram illustrating modified composition of a network for sharing information among medical facility data terminals shown in  FIG. 5 ; and  
       FIG. 10  is a block diagram illustrating another modified composition of a network for sharing information among medical facility data terminals shown in  FIG. 6 . 
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS  
      Preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described below in more detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. The present invention may, however, be embodied in different forms and should not be constructed as limited to the embodiments set forth herein. Rather, these embodiments are provided so that this disclosure will be thorough and complete, and will fully convey the scope of the invention to those skilled in the art. Like numerals refer to like elements throughout the specification.  
      Hereinafter, it will be described about an exemplary embodiment of the present invention in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. In the following description of the embodiments, ‘medical information’ means all kinds of information relative to personal physical and mental health including diagnosis and treatment records, health condition records, information of prescription with Western and Chinese medicines, and so forth.  
       FIG. 1  is a block diagram illustrating the structure of a unified medical information management system in accordance with the present invention.  
      As shown in  FIG. 1 , the unified medical information management system includes a medical information management home system  10 , a medical facility data terminal  20 , a personal mobile terminal  30 , and an intelligent decision supporting system  40 . The medical facility data terminal  20  is composed of a plurality of terminals  20 - 1  and  20 - n  those are connectable from each other through a network.  
      The medical information management home system  10  may be implemented by means of a personal computer and is associated with an exclusive coding and decoding processor  110  and a database  120 , receiving medical information directly from the medical facility data terminal  20  or receiving medical information, which has been transferred to the portable terminal  30  from the medical facility data terminal  20 , from the portable terminal  30 , and storing the medical information in the data base  120  to update data.  
      Here, the portable terminal  30  may be one of terminals such as a smart card, a mobile communication terminal having a smart card chip, a post-PC, and a portable PC exclusive to medical information. The mobile communication terminal means a communication terminal operable in a radio communication environment, such as a cellular phone, PCS, PDA, and so on.  
      As the medical information is permitted to be read only by medical staff or a patient himself or a guardian, communication between the medical facility data terminal  20  and the medical information management home system  10 , and between the medical facility data terminal  20  and the portable terminal  30 , should be made in a regularized network protocol and a specified message format. For this reason, the processor  110  is required for the medical facility data terminal  20 , the portable terminal  30 , and the medical information management home system  10  to process coding and decoding operations with documents of the medical information of the predetermined message format.  
      Such protocol and message format may be, for example, arranged with the form defined by HL7. The medical facility data terminal  20  stores medical information inputted by medical staff, using a document generating program according to the HL7 protocol, e.g., by means of a clinical document architecture (CDA) generator combined with an HL7 interface engine or tool kit, or a CDA generator by itself.  
      The medical facility data terminal  20  also transfers the personal medical information directly to the medical information management home system  10  by way of a communication network  50  or the portable terminal  30  with the HL7 interface by way of a communication network  50 . And then an individual who received his own medical information transfers it to the medical information management home system  10  from the portable terminal  30  by way of the communication network  50 .  
      In this embodiment, the communication network  50  means all kinds of networks applicable to data transmission such as the internet, radio communications, independent networks, and so forth.  
      From the consolidative storage and management of the personal medical information in the medical information management system  10 , there are advantages as follows.  
      As an example, for a patient who has been diagnosed and treated in a medical facility # 1 , the diagnosis and treatment information is transferred through the medical facility data terminal # 1   20 - 1  to the medical information management home system  10  owned by the patient. Afterward, when the patient has himself examined and treated in another medical facility #n, the medical facility #n is able to access to the medical information management home system  10  of the patient and refer to the medical information of the patient therein, which may enable a prescription to be optimized to a current condition of the patient.  
      As another case, if a medical facility #x is a drugstore, a patient who has been diagnosed and treated in the medical facility # 1  may request a suitable remedy by transferring his own medical information to the medical facility #x after storing his own medical information into the medical information management home system  10 . Further, the patient is able to receive notices about internal usage (or dosage) and information of prescribed medicines from the medical facility data terminal #x and utilize those notices in taking his medicines.  
      In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the unified medical information management system may further include an intelligent decision supporting system  40  that is connectable to the medical information management home system  10  by way of the communication network  50 .  
      The intelligent document supporting system  40 , as a system for analyzing the validity of the diagnosis and treatment information in response to a request of a user after storing the diagnosis and treatment information, which is obtained from the medical facility data terminal  20 , into the medical information management home system  10 , checks out erroneous data of the medical information with reference to the database  120  of the medical information management home system  10  that contains the past history of the user as a patient, details of currently dosing medicines, and current health, and provides the checking result.  
      While the intelligent decision supporting system  40  can be configured with connection to the medical information management home system  10  by way of the communication network  50  as illustrated in  FIG. 1 , it is also feasible to download and install decision supporting software, which is made by the medical facility, into the medical information management home system  10  and then to use it as like the intelligent decision supporting means. The intelligent decision supporting system  40  or the intelligent decision software defines the condition of standard treatment and decision, and provides cautions or advices after verifying whether diagnosis and treatment information, arising from an independent event as an input of medical information written by the standard of diagnosis and treatment knowledge representation syntax, is fit for the condition of standard treatment and decision.  
      The intelligent decision supporting system  40  is preferred to automatically detect addition of user&#39;s medical information to the medical information management home system  10 , and verify the added medical information with reference to preliminary stored information of the user, and then inform the user of the validity of the added medical information in real time. The result of verification of the medical information may be transferred to the medical information management home system  10  or the portable terminal  30 .  
      Such units employed in the unified medical information management system, such as the medical facility data terminal  20 , the medical information management home system  10 , and the portable terminal  30 , may be comprised of their exclusive viewers to display medical information.  
      Further, the medical information management home system  10  is able to manage the case records in the unit of family. From managing the case records of family as a whole, it is possible to conduct a pedigree-dependent medical service that is able to treat patients in accordance with constitutional tendencies and reduce the probability of attacks in heritable diseases, and to accumulate and manage heritable information for development of remedies for specific diseases.  
       FIG. 2  is a block diagram illustrating the structure of the medical facility data terminal  20  shown in  FIG. 1 .  
      Referring to  FIG. 2 , the medical facility data terminal  20  is comprised of a controller  210 , a medical record managing unit  220 , a medical record database  230 , a medical record mediator  240 , a communication interface  250 , and a medical record reporter  260 . The medical record managing unit  220  includes a data updating unit  222 , a data grouping unit  224 , and data associating unit  226 , and the medical record mediator  240  includes a user interface  242 , a certification unit  244 , and a searching engine  246 . The user interface  242  is connected to data input and output units such as a keyboard, a display, and so on, intermediating data transceiving operations between the data terminal  20  and a user (a medical staff).  
      A medical staff inputs details of diagnosis and treatment through the user interface  242  of the medical information mediator  240 . The input details of diagnosis and treatment are stored in the medical record database  230  by the medical record managing unit  220 . At this time, if a patient has himself diagnosed and treated for the first time, the medical record managing unit  220  creates a new database for the patient. If a patient has himself diagnosed and treated again, the data updating unit  222  of the medical record managing unit  220  modify, adds, or corrects diagnosis and treatment information of the patient and then stores the modified information into the database  230 .  
      In addition, it is preferred to verify an authorized user by the certification unit  244  before writing the diagnosis and treatment information in order to prevent the generation and update of records by an unauthorized user. It is preferred for the medical record managing unit  220  to use a clinical document architecture (CDA) generator combined with an HL7 interface engine or a tool kit, or CDA generator by itself in transforming the information and then to store the transformed information into the database  230 , in order to prevent the outflow of the diagnosis and treatment information.  
      After storing the diagnosis and treatment information of a patient in the medical record database  230 , a medical staff transfers the diagnosis and treatment information to the portable terminal  30  or the medical information management home system  10  of the patient, by way of the communication network interface  250 . During this, it is desirable to use a communication method using the HL7 interface.  
      On the other side, when a medical staff desires to search diagnosis and treatment information of a patient, the certification unit  244  of the medical record mediator  240  confirms, for the protection of personal information, whether the user accessing to the medical facility data terminal  20  is authorized. For the authentification, every user permitted to access the medical facility data terminal  20  shall be assigned with identification (ID) and a password, or provided with a certification.  
      If a user (a medical staff) desiring to search the diagnosis and treatment information is proved as an authorized one from the confirmation by the certification unit  244 , the user requires the diagnosis and treatment information by inputting key words to the searching engine  246 . The searching engine  246  finds and outputs corresponding diagnosis and treatment information through the medical record reporter  260 .  
      The medical record managing unit  220  includes, the data grouping unit  224  classifying the diagnosis and treatment information into various categories such as kinds of diseases, symptoms, ages of patients, etc., and the data associating unit  226  which examines relations among a variety of diagnosis and treatment information, such as symptoms according to kinds of diseases and the reverse. With results obtained by the data grouping and associating units,  224  and  226 , it enables advanced medical services such as an improvement in treatment, a provision of statistical materials, and so on.  
      The medical record reporter  260  operates as an intermediating unit for making the medical facility data terminals  20 - 1 ˜ 20 - n  share data, as well as it has a function of searching diagnosis and treatment information in response to a request of the medical record mediator  240 . That is, when the medical facility data terminals  20 - 1 ˜ 20 - n  are connected by way of the communication network  50 , the medical record reporter  260  searches the medical record database  230  for diagnosis and treatment information requested from another medical facility and transfers the information to the data terminal of the medical facility which requested the information. It will be described later about the features of sharing data and connection among the medical facility data terminals  20 - 1 ˜ 20 - n.    
       FIG. 3  is a flow chart explaining a method of unified medical information management in accordance with the present invention.  
      First, when a person goes to a medical facility, a designated medical staff examines and treats the person and the result of diagnosis and treatment is stored in the medical facility data terminal  20  (step S 101 ). At this time, the diagnosis and treatment information is stored after it is transformed in a predetermined document format in order to protect personal information (step S 102 ). In this embodiment of the present invention, the diagnosis and treatment information is stored by means of a CDA generator combined with the HL7 interface engine or a tool kit, or a CDA generator by itself.  
      Subsequently, the medical facility data terminal  20  transfers the diagnosis and treatment information to the portable terminal  30  of the user (step S 103 ). During this, it is preferable to use the communication method employing the HL7 interface. Next, the user transfers the diagnosis and treatment information, which is temporarily stored in the portable terminal  30  of his own, to the medical information management home system  10  of his own (step S 104 ). Also, during this, the communication method with the HL7 interface is used.  
      The diagnosis and treatment information is stored in the medical information management home system  10  and then decoded by the exclusive coding and decoding processor  110 . The intelligent decision supporting system  40  recognizes the decoding of the diagnosis and treatment information and analyzes the validity of the diagnosis and treatment information on the basis of the user&#39;s case records previously stored in the medical information management home system  10  and sends the analyzed result to the medical information management home system  10  (step S 105 ). The medical information home system  10  stores the analyzed result of the intelligent decision supporting system  40  into the database  120 . Here, the intelligent decision supporting system  40  may be implemented as an independent system connectable to the communication network  50 , or as a program embedded in the medical information management home system  10 . The analyzed result of the diagnosis and treatment information, provided by the intelligent decision supporting system  40 , may be displayed on the medical information management home system  10  or transferred to the portable terminal  30  for the user.  
      Afterward, when the user requires his own diagnosis and treatment information of the medical information management home system  10 , the medical information management home system  10  displays the diagnosis and treatment information of the user (step S 107 ).  
      In the present invention, it is available for the diagnosis and treatment information generated from the medical facility data terminal  20  to be stored directly in the medical information management home system  10  of the user by way of the communication network  50  without passing through the portable terminal  30 .  
      After the step S 107  for providing the diagnosis and treatment information to the user, it is possible to transmit his own diagnosis and treatment information to the third medical facility such as a drugstore in response to the user&#39;s request (step S 108 ). In this case, the third medical facility such as a drugstore writes out a prescription reference document containing information of medicines to be prescribed and the guidance of dosage (usage) on basis of the received diagnosis and treatment information, and then transfers the prescription reference document to the medical information management home system  10  (step S 109 ). The medical information management home system  10  receives and displays the prescription reference document so as to make the user read it (step S 110 ). It is also possible for the medical information management home system to transfer the prescription reference document, which is received from the third medical facility such as a drugstore, to the portable terminal  30  of the user.  
       FIG. 4  is a flow chart explaining a method of storing medical information in accordance with the present invention.  
      In storing a result of diagnosis and treatment by a medical staff (or a medical staff) for a user who comes into a medical facility, the medical staff inputs diagnosis and treatment information through the user interface  242  of the medical facility data terminal  20  (step S 201 ). During this, it is possible to accompany with a step of verifying whether the user inputting the information is an authorized user. The user authentification may be carried out with previously established identification and password, or with a certification issued by a certification facility.  
      The diagnosis and treatment information inputted by the medical staff may contain texts or images, and for protection of personal information, the medical record managing unit  220  of the medical facility data terminal  20  transforms the diagnosis and treatment information inputted by the medical staff using a CDA generator combined to an HL7 interface engine or a tool kit, or a CDA generator by itself (step S 202 ).  
      After then, when the medical staff needs to store the diagnosis and treatment information, the medical record managing unit  220  requests a search for previous diagnosis and treatment records of the user to be diagnosed and treated (step S 203 ). That is, it requests confirming whether there is a diagnosis and treatment record previously stored by an index such as a username or a resident registration number (or a social identification number). Accordingly, the medical record managing unit  220  of the medical facility data terminal  20  confirms the presence of a user index (step S 204 ), and stores a summary document of a current result of diagnosis and treatment into the medical record database  230  (step S 205 ) if there is the user index.  
      The medical record managing unit  220  confirms whether an image is included in the diagnosis and treatment information inputted by the medical staff (step S 206 ), and stores the diagnosis and treatment information into the database  230  together with the image (step S 207 ) if there is an image.  
      During the step S 204  of confirming the presence of the user index in the medical record database  230 , if there is no index, the step S 205  of storing the summary document is carried out after creating an index (step S 208 ). In the step S 206  of confirming the inclusion of an image, if there is no image in the diagnosis and treatment information, only the diagnosis and treatment information is stored in the database  230  (step S 209 ).  
      In the aforementioned method of storing the medical record or information, the databases for storing the summaries and details of the diagnosis and treatment information may be consolidated into a single unit or independent units by each.  
       FIG. 5  is a block diagram illustrating exemplary composition of a network for sharing information among medical facility data terminals shown in  FIG. 1 , and  FIG. 6  is a block diagram illustrating another exemplary composition of a network for sharing information among medical facility data terminals shown in  FIG. 1 .  
       FIGS. 5 and 6  shows, when the medical facility data terminal  20  is arranged in a plurality of terminals  20 - 1 ˜ 20 - n , the features of interconnections for sharing the medical information between the medical facility data terminals  20 - 1 ˜ 20 - n , which is accomplished by the medical record reporter  260  shown in  FIG. 2 .  
      First, referring to  FIG. 5 , the plural medical facility data terminals  20 - 1 ˜ 20 - n  are connectively arranged in the form similar to a primary tree structure. One of the medical facility data terminals  20 - 1 ˜ 20 - n , e.g.,  20 - 1 , has a medical record reporting concentrator  270  to share the diagnosis and treatment information. As a matter of convenience, the medical facility data terminal  20 - 1  having the medical record reporting concentrator  270  will be referred to as “higher medical facility data terminal”, while the other medical facility data terminal  20 - 2 ˜ 20 - n  as “lower medical facility data terminals”.  
      In this embodiment, the medical record reporting concentrator  270  includes a common database  272  that manages summaries and details about the medical information stored in the higher (i.e., by itself) and lower medical facility data terminals in the classes of indexes. In other words, the common database  272  stores and manages the information about the medical facility data terminals where a summary document for a certain patient and its detailed information are stored, and it is possible to store practical contents of the summary and detail in accordance with cases.  
      Referring to  FIG. 7 , the plural medical facility data terminals  20 - 1 ˜ 20 - n  are connected to each other by way of their own communication network interfaces. For example, when a user of the lower medical facility data terminal  20 - 2  requests diagnosis and treatment information by way of the medical record mediator  240 - 2  (step S 301 ), the medical record mediator  240 - 2  requires a search for the diagnosis and treatment information of the medical record reporter  260 - 2 . Here, the diagnosis and treatment information required by the user may be a summary and/or a detail. The medical record reporter  260 - 2  confirms searches the database  230 - 2  to confirm whether the diagnosis and treatment information required by the user is stored in the database  230 - 2  (step S 302 ).  
      If the database  230 - 2  does not have the diagnosis and treatment information required by the user, the medical record reporter  260 - 2  requests the diagnosis and treatment information (summaries and/or details) from the medical record reporting concentrator  270  of the higher medical facility data terminal  20 - 1  (step S 203 ). Accordingly, the medical record reporting concentrator  270  of the higher medical facility data terminal  20 - 1  refers to the common database  272  (step S 304 ).  
      After referring to the common database  272  of the medical record reporting concentrator  270 , if the diagnosis and treatment information (summaries and/or details) required by the lower medical facility data terminal  20 - 2  exists in the lower medical facility data terminal  20 - n , the higher medical facility data terminal  20 - 1  requests the diagnosis and treatment information (summaries and/or details) from the lower medical facility data terminal  20 - n  (step S 305 ) and receives the diagnosis and treatment information (summaries and/or details) from the lower medical facility data terminal  20 - n  (step S 306 ). During this, the lower medical facility data terminal  20 - n  received a request for the diagnosis and treatment information is able to further prosecute verifying whether the higher medical facility data terminal  20 - 1  requiring the diagnosis and treatment information is an authorized information requester. In addition, it is preferred to receive the information of the medical facility data terminal  20 - 2 , which requests the diagnosis and treatment information for the first time, from the higher medical facility data terminal  20 - 1  and to store and manage it as an history of providing the diagnosis and treatment information.  
      Afterward, when the diagnosis and treatment information is transferred to the lower medical facility data terminal  20 - 2  (step S 307 ), the lower medical facility data terminal  20 - 2  outputs the received diagnosis and treatment information (step S 308 ).  
      The aforementioned networking scheme with the primary tree architecture is efficient when the number of the medical facility data terminals  20 - 1 ˜ 20 - n  is not quite large, but it may be incapable of assuring a normal data rate when the number of the medical facility data terminals  20 - 1 ˜ 20 - n  increases. In order to overcome the limits according to the number of the data terminals, the multiple tree architecture is usefully provided as shown in  FIG. 6 . While  FIG. 6  proposes a secondary tree architecture, it is possible to implement a networking system with a more multiplied tree architecture along an increase of the number of the medical facility data terminals  20 - 1 ˜ 20 - n.    
      Referring to  FIG. 6 , the primary tree is constructed of the medical facility data terminals  20 - a  through  20 - x  that include the medical record reporting concentrator  270  by a higher medical record reporting concentrator  280  that is regarded as a higher level than the medical record reporting concentrator  270 . The secondary tree is constructed of the medical facility data terminals  20 - b  through  20 - c  that do not include the medical record reporting concentrator  270  by a medical report reporting connector  270 - a ˜ 270 - x.    
      For the convenience in description, it refers the medical facility data terminal  20 - 1  having the higher medical record reporting concentrator  280  to as the highest medical facility data terminal, the medical facility data terminals  20 - a ˜ 20 - x  having the medical record reporting concentrator  270 - a ˜ 270 - x  to as the higher medical facility data terminals, and the medical facility data terminals  20 - b ˜ 20 - c  without the medical record reporting concentrator  270  to as the lower medical facility data terminals.  
      In this embodiment, the medical record reporting concentrators  270 - a  and  270 - x  comprise the primary common databases  271 - a  and  272 - x , respectively, for managing summaries and details of the medical information stored in themselves (i.e., the higher medical facility data terminals) and the lower medical facility data terminals (e.g.,  20 - b  through  20 - c  for 20-a) by indexes. Further, the higher medical record reporting concentrators  280  includes the secondary common databases  282 , respectively, for managing summaries and details of the medical information stored in itself (i.e., the highest medical facility data terminal) and the higher medical facility data terminals by indexes. Here, the primary and secondary common databases may store practical contents of the medical information, together with the summaries and details.  
      Referring to  FIG. 8  for more detailed description about the operation, in the condition that plural medical facility data terminals  20 - 1 ˜ 20 - n  are connected to each other by way of the communication network interface, if a user of the lower medical facility data terminal  20 - b  requires diagnosis and treatment information through the medical record mediator  240 - b  (step S 401 ), the medical record mediator  240 - b  requests a search for the diagnosis and treatment information from the medical record reporter  260 - b . Here, the diagnosis and treatment information required by the user may be summaries and/or details. The medical record reporter  260 - b  searches the database  230 - b  to confirm whether the diagnosis and treatment information required by the user is stored in the database  230 - b  (step S 402 ).  
      If the database  230 - b  does not have the diagnosis and treatment information required by the user, the medical record reporter  260 - b  requests the diagnosis and treatment information from the medical record reporting concentrator  270 - a  of the higher medical facility data terminal  20 - a  (step S 403 ). According as that, the medical record reporting concentrator  270 - a  of the higher medical facility data terminal  20 - a  refers to the primary common database and confirms which of the lower medical facility data terminal has summaries and/or details of the diagnosis and treatment information required by the user (step S 404 ).  
      After referring to the primary common database  272 - a  by the medical record reporting concentrator  270 - a , if it is confirmed that the lower medical facility data terminal ( 20 - c , etc.) does not have the diagnosis and treatment information requested by the lower medical facility data terminal  20 - b , the higher medical facility data terminal  20 - a  requests the diagnosis and treatment information to the higher medical record reporting concentrator  280  of the highest medical facility data terminal  20 - 1  (step S 405 ). Accordingly, the higher medical record reporting concentrator  280  of the highest medical facility data terminal  20 - 1  refers to the secondary common database and confirms which of the higher medical facility data terminal stores summaries and/or details of the diagnosis and treatment information requested by the higher medical facility data terminal  20 - a  (step S 406 ).  
      From referring to the secondary common database by the higher medical record reporting concentrator  280 , if it is confirmed that the higher medical facility data terminal  20 - x  contains the diagnosis and treatment information requested by the higher medical facility data terminal  20 - a , the highest medical facility data terminal  20 - 1  requests summaries and/or details of the diagnosis and treatment information to the higher medical facility data terminal  20 - x  (step S 407 ) and receives the diagnosis and treatment information from the higher medical facility data terminal  20 - x  (step S 408 ). During this, the higher medical facility data terminal  20 - a  requested for the diagnosis and treatment information is able to further prosecute an operation of confirming whether the highest medical facility data terminal  20 - 1  requesting the diagnosis and treatment information is authorized. In addition, it is preferable to receive information about the lower medical facility data terminal  20 - b  which requested the diagnosis and treatment information for the first time and about the higher medical facility data terminal  20 - a  from the highest medical facility data terminal  20 - 1 , and to store and manage the information as a history of providing diagnosis and treatment information.  
      After then, the higher medical record reporting concentrator  280  of the highest medical facility  20 - 1  transfers the diagnosis and treatment information (summaries and/or details), which is received from the higher medical facility data terminal  20 - x , to the higher medical facility data terminal  20 - a  (step S 409 ). The higher medical facility data terminal  20 - a  transfers the diagnosis and treatment information to the lower medical facility data terminal  20 - b  (step S 410 ). The lower medical facility data terminal  20 - b  outputs the received diagnosis and treatment information.  
      As described above, when the number of the medical facility data terminals  20 - 1 ˜ 20 - n  is large, the multiple tree architecture contributes to enhancing the speeds of searching and transferring data, rather than those by the primary tree architecture.  
       FIGS. 5 and 8  illustrate embodiments where the medical facility data terminals shares medical information vertically (i.e., networking with a tree architecture). Otherwise, the primary tree architecture shown in  FIG. 5  can be configured into the networking structure where the lower medical facility data terminals are connected each other, as illustrated in  FIG. 9 . It is also available for the secondary tree architecture shown in  FIG. 6  to be configured into the networking structure where the lower medical facility data terminals are connected each other and the higher medical facility data terminals are connected each other, as illustrated in  FIG. 10 .  
      First, referring to  FIG. 9 , the lower medical facility data terminals  20 - 2 ˜ 20 - n  form a star-structure networking scheme by means of the medical record reporters  260 - 2 ˜ 260 - n  respective thereto. While this embodiment shows the star-structure networking scheme between the lower medical facility data terminals  20 - 2 ˜ 20 - n  positioned under the higher medical facility data terminal  20 - 1 , it is possible to form another star-structure networking scheme for all of the medical facility data terminals  20 - 1 ˜ 20 - n  without the higher medical facility data terminal (e.g.,  20 - 1 ).  
      The medical record reporters  260 - 2 ˜ 260 - n , acting as intermediating means for data commonage between the medical facility data terminals, searches and uses necessary data from other medical facility data terminals when the medical facility data terminals form the star-structure networking scheme as in this embodiment.  
      Next, referring to  FIG. 10 , the lower medical facility data terminals  20 - b ˜ 20 - c  form a star-structure networking scheme by means of the medical record reporters  260 - b ˜ 260 - c  respective thereto and the higher medical facility data terminals  20 - a ˜ 20 - x  form a star-structure networking scheme by means of the medical record reporting concentrators  270 - a ˜ 270 - x  respective thereto. While this embodiment shows the star-structure networking scheme between the higher medical facility data terminals  20 - a ˜ 20 - x  positioned under the highest medical facility data terminal  20 - 1 , and between the lower medical facility data terminals (e.g.,  20 - b ˜ 20 - c ) positioned under the higher medical facility data terminal (e.g.,  20 - a ), it is possible to form another star-structure networking scheme for all of the medical facility data terminals without the highest or the higher medical facility data terminal.  
      Therefore, the medical facility data terminals applicable to the present invention implements a networking scheme capable of sharing data horizontally, vertically as well. When it needs information, the information can be obtained from searching the medical record database of other medical facilities by means of one of the medical record reporter, the medical record reporting concentrator, and the higher medical record reporting concentrator.  
      Although the present invention has been described in connection with the embodiment of the present invention illustrated in the accompanying drawings, it is not limited thereto. It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various substitution, modifications and changes may be thereto without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention.  
      The present invention described above is advantageous to implementing a paperless hospital by storing the diagnosis and treatment records of patients in computerized forms and providing the records to the patients through a communication network. With the computerization of the diagnosis and treatment records, the medical technologies can be advanced from studies for prescriptions and preventions against various diseases, and also from the commonage of information between medical facilities by way of the networking scheme.  
      Moreover, a patient can be provided with proper diagnosis and treatment on basis of his private case history because he is able to manage his own diagnosis and treatment record by himself and to show the record to a medical staff if necessary. In addition, the decision supporting system to repeatedly confirm the adequateness of diagnosis and treatment by a medical staff may contribute to verify the validity of the diagnosis and treatment affairs and to prevent medical accident.  
      Consequently, the present invention is capable of preventing ineffective medical services, reducing the misuse and abuse of health foods and medicines due to incorrect information, and accomplishing individualized medical affairs of medicine prescriptions and dietetic treatments. Thus, it can reduce a cost for medical treatment according to an increase of the old, providing efficient and high-quality medical services with a small cost.