Patent ID: 7024399

Claim:
A system communicatable with a computer network, comprising: a server communicatable with a user via the computer network, said server being in communication with a processor and a computer-readable medium storing instructions executable by said processor, said instructions including: (a) accessing a plurality of parallel health state networks describing at least one of a plurality of primary networks defining disease evolutions, a plurality of secondary networks defining risk factors affecting progression through a primary network of the plurality of primary networks, and a plurality of tertiary networks defining at least one of causal probabilistic medical complications attributed to at least one stage in the primary network and medical complications attributed to management of the at least one stage; (b) accessing at least one first belief network which describes each of the plurality of parallel health state networks; (c) accessing at least one second belief network which describes rates of progression within and/or between said plurality of parallel health state networks, and to describe task factors that affect the rates of progression; (d) accessing at least one third belief network which supports plan critiques of queries of and treatment prescribed by the user; (e) receiving patient; (f) instantiating a virtual patient having characteristics consistent with the received patient data and based, at least in part, on the at least one first belief network and the at least one second belief network; (g) generating one of a query to the user for a specific medical finding concerning the actual patient, and a course of action based, at least in part on the virtual patient and the at least one third belief network; (h) receiving the specific medical finding from the user responsive to the generated query; and (i) evolving the virtual patient in accordance with at least one of the at least one first belief network and the at least one second belief network, and responsive to the received specific medical finding.