Patent ID: 7593952

Claim:
A data processing system comprising: one or more computer processors programmed to receive health information from a patient using software operable to pose a logic-driven, branching series of questions to identify, discriminate current from past, and prioritize said patient's major symptoms, (a) wherein said major symptoms are ranked by priority to said patient; and wherein exploratory questions are used to survey selected topics; (b) wherein said exploratory questions ask about groups of related items; (c) wherein said exploratory questions determine a time frame of relevance to said patient and the priority of a symptom or provisional problem, (d) wherein said priority is characterized by one or more patient factors, selected from the group of: patient's priority for discussion with a clinician, severity of said symptom, impairment of functional abilities, impact on quality of life resulting from said symptom, or system criteria based on a potential clinical importance of said symptom; (e) wherein said software is further operable to construct subsequent, more detailed questions from a database of potential questions, based upon said patient's responses to said exploratory questions; and (f) wherein said software is operable on the one or more computer processors or on a server distributed to the one or more computers over an Internet connection.