MEDICAL e-TEMPLATES

Abstract

The present application relates to a method and system for providing medical personnel with medical treatment protocols for treating a disease or medical condition of interest. The method includes transmitting a medical treatment protocol template to a user upon receiving a request for a medical treatment protocol related to a particular medical condition. The medical treatment protocol template may include treatment parameters data and sample case data. The method and system also allow for the treatment parameters data from the medical treatment protocol template to be applied to patient data to create a patient-specific treatment plan to allow a clinician to apply the medical treatment protocol embodied by the template to a particular patient.

1 . A method of providing a medical treatment protocol template stored in electronic format to a user, the method comprising:
 receiving, at a computer system, a request for a treatment protocol template related to a medical condition of interest to a user;   processing the request and identifying, from a database comprising a plurality of medical treatment protocol template files, at least one treatment protocol template related to the request; and   transmitting the at least one medical treatment protocol template to the user.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the medical treatment protocol template comprises treatment parameters data and optionally sample case data. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 2 , wherein the medical treatment protocol template comprises data chosen from indication data, a disclaimer, contra indication data, background information, one or more reference citations, or a combination of two or more thereof. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the database comprising the plurality of medical treatment protocol template files is resident on a user's computer. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the database comprising the plurality of medical treatment protocol template files is resident on a computer system remote from a user's computer. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 5 , wherein transmitting the at least one medical treatment protocol template includes transmitting the at least one medical treatment protocol template to a user via a network connection. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 5 , wherein transmitting the at least one medical treatment protocol template includes transmitting an electronic copy of the at least one treatment protocol template to a user via e-mail. 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein a treatment planning application applies the treatment parameters data of the medical treatment protocol template to relevant patient data related to a particular patient to create a patient specific treatment plan. 
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 8 , further comprising manually modifying the treatment parameters data. 
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 8 , wherein the request for a treatment protocol template is made via the treatment planning application. 
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising providing an online forum mode via the computer system for a user to interact with one or more clinicians regarding the at least one identified medical treatment protocol template. 
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein receiving a request from a user comprises receiving a user response to one or more medical related questions; receiving one or more keywords as input; receiving a response to a user's selection of a medical condition from a list, or a combination of two or more thereof. 
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising receiving new or revised medical treatment protocol templates from a clinician or customer, and reviewing the new or revised medical treatment protocol templates prior to transmission to a user. 
     
     
         14 . A system for providing a medical treatment protocol template comprising:
 a memory;   a plurality of treatment protocol template files stored in the memory; and   a processor that executes logic to:
 receive a request for a medical treatment protocol template related to a medical condition, and 
 identify at least one treatment protocol template file related to the request, wherein a medical treatment protocol template file comprises treatment parameters data and optionally sample case data. 
   
     
     
         15 . The system of  claim 14  comprising a treatment planning application comprising patient files having patient data associated therewith for a respective patient, wherein the processor executes logic to apply a relevant portion of the treatment parameters data associated with the at least one identified treatment protocol template to the appropriate patient data of a patient file. 
     
     
         16 . The system of  claim 15 , wherein the processor executes logic to modify the treatment parameters data based on user input data. 
     
     
         17 . The system of  claim 14 , wherein the processor executes logic to transmit a copy of the at least one identified treatment protocol template to a user system requesting a treatment protocol template. 
     
     
         18 . The system of  claim 14  further comprising a communications interface for conducting a communication session with a user via a network connection. 
     
     
         19 . A method for a medical treatment protocol system owner to create a medical treatment protocol template database comprising:
 acquiring information regarding treatment of particular medical conditions including treatment parameters data and optionally sample case data related to the medical treatment protocol;   converting the information into respective treatment protocol templates comprising the treatment parameters data, and optionally the sample case data associated with the treatment protocol; and   saving the medical treatment protocol template as part of a database.   
     
     
         20 . The method of  claim 19 , wherein acquiring information regarding treatment of a medical condition includes receiving a submission of data in electronic form from a clinician or customer of the medical treatment protocol system owner. 
     
     
         21 . The method of  claim 20 , wherein the submission of data from the clinician or customer is received in an e-mail format from a user. 
     
     
         22 . The method of  claim 20 , wherein the submission of data is received from a clinician or customer uploading the data to the medical treatment protocol system. 
     
     
         23 . A method of treating a disease comprising:
 submitting a request for a medical treatment protocol related to a medical condition of interest to a medical treatment protocol system having a database including a plurality of medical treatment protocol templates;   receiving an electronic version of at least one medical treatment protocol template from the treatment protocol system, the medical treatment protocol template comprising treatment parameters data and optionally sample case data; and   treating a medical subject by performing treatment parameters defined in the at least one treatment protocol template on a medical subject.   
     
     
         24 . The method of  claim 23 , comprising applying relevant treatment parameters data of a medical treatment protocol template file to patient data contained in a treatment planning application to create a patient-specific treatment plan. 
     
     
         25 . The method of  claim 24 , comprising manually modifying the treatment parameters data. 
     
     
         26 . The method of  claim 23 , wherein at least a portion of the treatment parameters data from a received medical treatment protocol template is automatically transferred to a treatment planning application comprising medical data related to a medical subject, and the treatment planning application applies at least a portion of the treatment parameters data to the relevant medical data field to create a treatment plan specific to a medical subject. 
     
     
         27 . The method according to  claim 24 , further comprising manually modifying the treatment plan.