Patent ID: 7945451

Claim:
A patient monitoring apparatus for monitoring a health condition of an ambulatory patient, the patient monitoring apparatus comprising: a display for presenting questions to the ambulatory patient; an input device permitting the ambulatory patient to enter answers to the questions; a microprocessor operably coupled to the display and the input device; a read-only memory device operably coupled to the microprocessor, the read-only memory device storing a plurality of question hierarchies, each of the question hierarchies corresponding to a symptom in a plurality of symptoms, wherein a first question hierarchy in the plurality of question hierarchies corresponds to a first symptom in the plurality of symptoms, wherein the first question hierarchy includes a first question that solicits information regarding the first symptom, and wherein the first question hierarchy includes a second question that solicits additional information regarding the first symptom; and a communication device operably coupled to the microprocessor; wherein the microprocessor is programmed to: receive a symptom identifier from a central computing system via the communication device, the symptom identifier identifying a symptom in the plurality of symptoms; determine whether the symptom identifier identifies the first symptom; ask the first question when the symptom identifier identifies the first symptom; receive an answer to the first question via the input device, the first question hierarchy indicating that the second question is moot when the answer to the first question indicates a first option, the first question hierarchy indicating that the second question is not moot when the answer to the first question indicates a second option; make a decision regarding whether the second question is moot in light of the answer to the first question; automatically ask the second question when the patient monitoring apparatus makes the decision that the second question is not moot in light of the answer to the first question, the patient monitoring apparatus not asking the second question when the patient monitoring apparatus makes the decision that the second question is moot in light of the answer to the first question; and send to the central computing system a set of answers, the set of answers comprising answers to each question in the first question hierarchy asked by the patient monitoring apparatus, the central computing system configured to determine, based on the set of answers, whether to notify a health care provider that the ambulatory patient possibly needs medical care.