Research support device, research support method, and program

Abstract

To provide a research support device, research support method, and research support program capable of realizing an information platform for further advancing medical researches related to genes and diseases.SOLUTION: A research support device includes: an account management unit that manages one or more topics received from a user terminal in association with account data of a user; an information collection unit that collects one or more pieces of related information on the topics, the related information being related to medical publications and / or clinical trials; a priority accordance unit that associates a priority based on at least one of a publication date, citation count, and view count of the related information to the related information; and a transmission unit that transmits the related information and the priority to the user terminal.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 1

Description

[Technical field]

[0001] The present invention relates to a research support device, a research support method, and a program. [Background technology]

[0002] Conventionally, a service has been provided that uses the results of an analysis of the relationship between base sequence information and disease risk to provide information about the disease risk of an individual based on the individual's base sequence information.

[0003] For example, Patent Document 1 below describes a data generation device that generates data for a screen in which a first axis indicates the degree of risk of developing each disease calculated by referring to the genetic test results of a target user, and a second axis indicates a statistical value related to each disease, and objects corresponding to the disease are placed at positions indicating the degree of risk of developing the disease and the statistical value related to the disease. [Prior art documents] [Patent documents]

[0004] [Patent Document 1] JP 2016-24632 A Summary of the Invention [Problem to be solved by the invention]

[0005] Medical research into genes and diseases, which are the basis of these genetic testing services, has progressed remarkably, and vast amounts of complex research information are being accumulated daily. Therefore, in the development and research of new services and products, there is a demand for an information platform that can handle such vast amounts of complex research information.

[0006] Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a research support device, a research support terminal, a research support method, and a research support program that are capable of realizing an information platform for further developing medical research on genes and diseases. [Means for solving the problem]

[0007] That is, the present invention is as follows. [1] an account management unit that manages one or more topics received from a user terminal in association with the user's account data; an information gathering unit for gathering one or more pieces of relevant information related to the topic, the information being related to medical publications and / or clinical trials; a priority assignment unit that assigns a priority to the related information based on at least one of a publication date, a citation count, and a view count of the related information; A transmission unit that transmits the related information and the priority to the user terminal. Research support equipment. [2] Research support equipment, managing one or more topics received from a user terminal in association with account data of the user; collecting one or more relevant pieces of information related to said topic, the relevant pieces of information being related to medical publications and / or clinical trials; Associating a priority with the related information based on at least one of a publication date, a number of citations, and a number of views of the related information; transmitting the related information and the priority to the user terminal. Research support methods. [3] Research support equipment, managing one or more topics received from a user terminal in association with account data of the user; collecting one or more relevant pieces of information related to said topic, the relevant pieces of information being related to medical publications and / or clinical trials; Associating a priority with the related information based on at least one of a publication date, a number of citations, and a number of views of the related information; transmitting the related information and the priority to the user terminal; program. [4] A sending unit that sends one or more topics to a server; a receiving unit that receives, from a server, one or more pieces of related information related to the topic and a priority associated with the one or more pieces of related information; a display control unit that controls display of the received related information in order according to the priority for each of the topics; the display control unit controls display of the received related information having a high priority on a first screen, and controls display of the other related information on a second screen according to the priority. Research support terminal. [5] A receiving unit that receives a question from a user terminal; an answer generation unit that generates an answer to the question; a correlation generating unit for generating correlation information related to keywords of the question; an information collecting unit that collects medical information related to keywords of the question; A transmitting unit that transmits the answer, the correlation information, and the medical information regarding the question to the user terminal. Research support equipment. [6] Research support equipment, receiving a query from a user terminal; generating an answer related to said question; generating correlation information regarding keywords of the query; collecting medical information related to keywords of the query; transmitting the answer, the correlation information, and the medical information related to the question to the user terminal. Research support methods. [7] Research support equipment, receiving a query from a user terminal; generating an answer related to said question; generating correlation information regarding keywords of the query; collecting medical information related to keywords of the query; transmitting the answer, the correlation information, and the medical information related to the question to the user terminal. program. [8] a sending unit for sending a question to a server; a receiving unit that receives an answer to the question, correlation information related to a keyword of the question, and medical information related to the keyword of the question from the server; a display control unit that controls display of the answer, the correlation information, and the medical information related to the question, The display control unit controls the display of the correlation information as a correlation diagram, and controls the display of the medical information by dividing it into at least one or more categories of variants, genes, proteins, diseases, compounds of drugs or candidate substances thereof, clinical trials, and publications. Research support terminal. [9] A receiving unit that receives a first extraction condition selected from medical history, lifestyle, or constitution from a user terminal; an option generation unit that generates options according to the first extraction condition; A transmission unit that transmits the generated options to the user terminal; the receiving unit receiving the selection result of the option from the user terminal as a second extraction condition; An extraction unit that extracts a cohort having a specific attribute from population data based on at least the first extraction condition and the second extraction condition; The transmitting unit transmits information about the cohort to the user terminal. Research support equipment.

[10] Research support equipment, receiving a first extraction condition selected from medical history, lifestyle, or constitution from a user terminal; generating options according to the first extraction condition; transmitting the generated options to the user terminal; receiving a selection result of the option from the user terminal as a second extraction condition; Extracting a cohort having a specific attribute from the population data based on at least the first extraction condition and the second extraction condition; transmitting information about the cohort to the user terminal; Research support methods.

[11] Research support equipment, receiving a first extraction condition selected from medical history, lifestyle, or constitution from a user terminal; generating options according to the first extraction condition; transmitting the generated options to the user terminal; receiving a selection result of the option from the user terminal as a second extraction condition; Extracting a cohort having a specific attribute from the population data based on at least the first extraction condition and the second extraction condition; transmitting information about the cohort to the user terminal; program.

[12] A transmission unit that transmits a first extraction condition selected from medical history, lifestyle, or constitution to a server; a receiving unit that receives options corresponding to the first extraction condition from the server; the transmission unit that transmits the selection result of the option to the server as a second extraction condition; The receiving unit receives information about a cohort having a specific attribute from population data based on at least the first extraction condition and the second extraction condition from the server; A display control unit that controls the display of the information about the cohort using a graph showing the population by age and gender, Research support terminal. Effect of the Invention

[0008] According to the present invention, it is possible to provide a research support device, a research support terminal, a research support method, and a research support program that are capable of realizing an information platform for further developing medical research on genes and diseases. [Brief description of the drawings]

[0009] [Figure 1] FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram showing a system according to an embodiment of the present invention. [Figure 2A] FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a configuration of a server in the present embodiment. [Figure 2B] 4 is a diagram showing the configuration of account data of a server in the present embodiment. FIG. [Figure 2C] FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a configuration of population data of a server in the present embodiment. [Diagram 3] FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a configuration of a user terminal in this embodiment. [Figure 4A] FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of a first screen D1 of a user terminal in this embodiment. [Figure 4B] FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of a second screen D2 of the user terminal in this embodiment. [Figure 4C] FIG. 11 is a diagram showing an example of a third screen D3 of the user terminal in this embodiment. [Figure 4D] FIG. 13 is a diagram showing an example of a fourth screen D4 of the user terminal in this embodiment. [Figure 4E] FIG. 11 is a diagram showing an example of a fifth screen D5 of the user terminal in this embodiment. [Figure 4F] FIG. 13 is a diagram showing an example of a sixth screen D6 of the user terminal in this embodiment. [Figure 4G] FIG. 13 is a diagram showing an example of a seventh screen D7 of the user terminal in this embodiment. [Figure 5A] FIG. 11 is an example of a sequence diagram showing a process of acquiring related information performed by the system according to the present embodiment. [Figure 5B] FIG. 11 is an example of a sequence diagram showing a search process performed by the system in the present embodiment. [Figure 5C]FIG. 11 is an example of a sequence diagram showing a cohort extraction process performed by the system in this embodiment. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

[0010] Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention (hereinafter referred to as "the present embodiment") will be described in detail, but the present invention is not limited to this embodiment, and various modifications are possible without departing from the gist of the present invention. Note that the same elements are given the same reference numerals, and duplicated descriptions will be omitted.

[0011] 1. System Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram showing a system for realizing an information platform of this embodiment. As shown in Fig. 1, the system 1 of this embodiment may include a server 100 and a user terminal 200, and may be configured to be able to communicate with an external server 300. The server 100, the user terminal 200, and the external server 300 may be connected via a network N.

[0012] In response to a request from the user terminal 200, the server 100 provides the latest information on topics of interest to the user, provides answers to questions from the user or information related to those questions, or performs a process to extract a cohort requested by the user for the user's research, etc., and transmits the results to the user terminal 200.

[0013] The user terminal 200 is a terminal used by a user, and may transmit topics of interest to the server 100 and receive the latest information on those topics, transmit questions and receive answers and other relevant information on the questions, or request a cohort extraction process. The user terminal 200 may also receive the results of the above processes from the server 100 and control the display of the results of the processes on a display device.

[0014] The external server 300 may be a publicly known database that records information about genes, variants, proteins, compounds, publications, and clinical trials.

[0015] Network N may be, but is not limited to, an ad-hoc network, an intranet, an extranet, a virtual private network (VPN), a local area network (LAN), a wireless LAN (WLAN), a wide area network (WAN), a wireless WAN (WWAN), a metropolitan area network (MAN), a portion of the Internet, a portion of the public switched telephone network (PSTN), a cellular network, ISDNs, wireless LANs, LTE, CDMA, Bluetooth, satellite communications, or any combination thereof. A network may include one or more networks.

[0016] Below, an example will be described in which the research support device of this embodiment is a server and the research support terminal is a user terminal, but this embodiment is not limited to this.

[0017] 1.1.Server 2A shows a configuration of the server 100 of this embodiment. As shown in FIG. 2A, the server 100 includes, for example, a processor 110, a communication interface 120, an input / output interface 130, a memory 140, a storage 150, and one or more buses 160 for interconnecting these components. The server 100 may be, for example, a desktop, a laptop, or other computer. The server 100 is a general-purpose computer and may be composed of one computer or may be composed of multiple computers present on a network N.

[0018] The processor 110 executes processes, functions, or methods realized by codes or instructions included in a program stored in the storage 150. As shown in Fig. 3A, the processor 110 of this embodiment may function as a transmitting / receiving unit 111, an account management unit 112, an information collection unit 113, a priority assignment unit 114, an answer generation unit 115, a correlation generation unit 116, an option generation unit 117, and an extraction unit 118.

[0019] The transmission / reception unit 111 may function as, for example, a transmission unit that transmits various information to another device such as the user terminal 200 via the communication interface 120 and the network N, or as a reception unit that receives various information from another device. In the following, the transmission unit and the reception unit will be referred to as the transmission / reception unit 111 without any particular distinction between them.

[0020] For example, in one embodiment, the transmission / reception unit 111 may function as a receiving unit that accepts topics of interest to the user from the user terminal 200, or as a transmitting unit that transmits to the user terminal 200 related information regarding the topic collected by the information collecting unit 113 and priorities assigned to the related information by the priority assigning unit 114 described later.

[0021] In another aspect, the transmission / reception unit 111 may function as a receiving unit that receives questions from the user terminal 200, or as a transmitting unit that transmits to the user terminal 200 answers generated by the answer generation unit 115 described below, correlation information generated by the correlation generation unit 116 described below, and medical information collected by the information collection unit 113.

[0022] Furthermore, in other aspects, the transmission / reception unit 111 may function as a receiving unit that receives a first extraction condition selected from medical history, lifestyle habits, or constitution from the user terminal 200, function as a transmitting unit that transmits the generated options to the user terminal 200, function as a receiving unit that receives the selection results of the options from the user terminal 200 as second extraction conditions, or function as a transmitting unit that transmits information regarding the cohort extracted by the extraction unit 118 to the user terminal 200.

[0023] The account management unit 112 may record the user's account information in the account data 151, or update the user's account information stored in the account data 151. For example, the account management unit 112 may manage one or more topics received from the user terminal 200 via the transmission / reception unit 111 in association with the user's account data 151.

[0024] Fig. 2B shows an example of the data structure of the account data 151. As shown in Fig. 2B, the account data 151 may record a user ID for uniquely identifying a user, topics registered by the user, and the like in association with each other.

[0025] Here, the "topic" is not particularly limited, and may be, for example, a keyword such as a gene, a variant, a protein, a compound name of a drug or a candidate substance, a disease name, etc. Furthermore, the topic may be an identifier used in a publicly known portal database that aggregates information on symptoms and phenotypes related to medical genetics, a mode of inheritance, clinical characteristics, the location of a gene locus that influences a disease, etc.

[0026] The information collecting unit 113 may collect one or more pieces of related information related to the topic received from the user terminal 200 by referring to the account data 151. At this time, the information collecting unit 113 may collect the related information by referring to the medical data 152 in the storage 150 that records information on medical publications and / or clinical trials, or may collect the related information from an external server that records information on medical publications and / or clinical trials.

[0027] The "related information" is not particularly limited, but may be, for example, medical papers such as articles and letters, other medical publications, so-called news such as trade papers and general papers, publicly known public data related to clinical trials, etc. Furthermore, more specifically, "related information related to a topic" may include related information whose abstract or title includes the topic or a synonym or homonym of the topic.

[0028] The information collecting unit 113 may exclude information with a publication date older than a certain date, or information with a low number of citations to other documents or a low number of views from the collection of related information. This makes it possible to avoid delays in the collection process caused by the information collecting unit 113 collecting all related information from a huge amount of information, and also to eliminate information with low value and collect information with high value.

[0029] In this embodiment, the information collecting unit 113 can specify "synonyms" and "homonyms" by referring to term data such as a thesaurus. The term data may be constructed using data such as medical papers and other medical publications, so-called news such as trade papers and general papers, publicly available data on clinical trials, etc., and a language processing model. This makes it possible to collect appropriate related information even if there is variation in expression in the topic specified by the user.

[0030] The medical data 152 may include information on genes, variants, proteins, compounds, publications, clinical trials, various estimation models such as disease risk estimation models created based on population data 153, and various information obtained by genome-wide association studies (GWAS).

[0031] Furthermore, when the transmitting / receiving unit 111 receives a question from the user terminal 200, the information collecting unit 113 may collect medical information related to a keyword of the question. At this time, the information collecting unit 113 may collect the medical information by referring to medical data 152 in the storage 150 that records information related to medical publications and / or clinical trials, or may collect the medical information from an external server that records information related to medical publications and / or clinical trials.

[0032] The priority assignment unit 114 associates a priority based on at least one of the publication date, the number of citations, and the number of views of the related information with the related information. The method of evaluating the priority is not particularly limited, but for example, the priority of information with a new publication date may be relatively highly evaluated, or the priority of information with a large number of citations to other documents or a large number of views may be relatively highly evaluated. Furthermore, from the viewpoint of adding trends to the priority, the priority of information with a large number of views or a large rate of increase in the number of views in a recent specified period may be relatively highly evaluated. Alternatively, the priority may be evaluated by combining these viewpoints.

[0033] As a result, multiple pieces of related information data are generated, such as "topic A, related information a1, priority 50", "topic A, related information a2, priority 60", etc. Then, the display control unit 212 of the user terminal 200 can control the display of the received related information by arranging it according to the priority for each topic.

[0034] The priority assignment unit 114 may transmit only related information whose priority is equal to or higher than a predetermined value to the user terminal 200 via the transmission / reception unit 111. This makes it possible to eliminate information of low value and provide information of high value to the user.

[0035] The answer generating unit 115 may generate an answer to a question when the transmitting / receiving unit 111 receives the question from the user terminal 200. The answer generating unit 115 may be configured by a generation AI. The "question" input by the user may be a phrase or a sentence.

[0036] The correlation generating unit 116 may generate correlation information related to the keyword of the question when the transmitting / receiving unit 111 receives a question from the user terminal 200. Here, the "keyword of the question" is not particularly limited, but may be, for example, a gene, a variant, a protein, a compound name of a drug or a candidate substance. Also, for example, if the question is a phrase, the phrase may be used as the keyword, or if the question is a sentence, a keyword may be specified from within the sentence. Furthermore, at this time, the information collecting unit 113 may further extract synonyms and / or homonyms from the keyword of the question, and use a word group including the synonyms and / or homonyms as a keyword.

[0037] Furthermore, the "correlation information" is not particularly limited, but may include, for example, information on genes, variants, proteins, names of drugs or candidate compounds, publications, clinical trials, etc. that are highly related to the keyword. For example, if a keyword is an identifier for a gene, related information may include other genes, proteins, publications that have been reported to be related to the gene, or compounds that act on proteins related to the gene, or clinical trials involving them. Such correlation information may be a correlation diagram showing a keyword (for example, a gene) and other genes or proteins.

[0038] When the transmitting / receiving unit 111 receives a node start condition from the user terminal 200, the correlation generating unit 116 may generate correlation information based on the node start condition. For example, assume that the user inputs "what is BRCA1" as a question and the keyword of the question is "BRCA1". BRCA1 is a gene related to hereditary breast cancer, and when the correlation generating unit 116 generates correlation information (correlation diagram) of this BRCA1, the generated correlation diagram is affected by whether the category of the node corresponding to BRCA1, which is the center (starting point) of the correlation diagram, should be "protein" derived from BRCA1 or "gene". Here, the "node start condition" may be information on the category of the node (gene, variant, protein, compound, publication, clinical trial, etc.).

[0039] In addition, a user's interest in the node category may be input as one of the "node start conditions." For example, if the keyword of the question is "BRCA1" and the category of BRCA1 is "protein," the generated correlation diagram is influenced by whether the correlation diagram expanding around BRCA1 is shown as a correlation diagram of interactions between proteins or as a correlation diagram of interactions between proteins and genes. Therefore, one of the "node start conditions" may include information that specifies the relationship of the correlation.

[0040] The option generation unit 117 is a functional unit that presents options for extracting a cohort, and when it receives a first extraction condition selected from medical history, lifestyle, or constitution from the user terminal 200, it generates an option (hereinafter also referred to as a "first option") according to the first extraction condition. The first extraction condition and the first option may be recorded in association with each other in a data table prepared in advance. The option generation unit 117 may generate the first option according to the first extraction condition by referring to the data table.

[0041] Furthermore, when the option generation unit 117 receives the selection result of the first option as the second extraction condition from the user terminal 200, it may generate an option (hereinafter also referred to as the "second option") according to the second extraction condition. The generated second option may be transmitted to the user terminal 200 by the transmission / reception unit 111, and the transmission / reception unit 111 may receive the selection result of the second option from the user terminal 200 as the third extraction condition. In this way, the number of extraction conditions may be three or more. Note that even in this case, the option generation unit 117 may refer to a data table to generate the second option etc. according to the second extraction condition etc.

[0042] For example, when the first extraction condition is a disease, the first option may be, for example, a group of diseases such as the circulatory system, respiratory system, digestive system, endocrine system, cancer, and infectious disease. In addition, the second option generated when the circulatory system is selected as the first option is not particularly limited, but may be, for example, disease names such as hypertension, arteriosclerosis, intracerebral hemorrhage, cerebral infarction, subarachnoid hemorrhage, myocardial infarction, angina pectoris, aneurysm, aortic dissection, heart failure, atrial fibrillation, and ventricular fibrillation. This makes it possible to extract, for example, a population of people suffering from a specific disease.

[0043] When the first extraction condition is a lifestyle, specific examples of the first option include, but are not limited to, sleep time, stress level, fatigue level, weight change, amount of exercise, smoking status, etc. In addition, the second option generated when sleep time is selected as the first option includes, but is not limited to, less than 4 hours, 4 to 6 hours, 6 to 8 hours, 8 hours or more, etc. This makes it possible to extract a population of people who have a certain sleep time, stress level, fatigue level, weight change, amount of exercise, smoking status, etc. as lifestyle.

[0044] When the first extraction condition is constitution, specific examples of the first option include constitution, physical condition, personality, etc. Examples of the second option generated when constitution is selected as the first option include easily gaining weight, poor circulation, easily edema, easily fatigued, and low tolerance to alcohol. Examples of the third option generated when easily gaining weight is selected as the second option include, but are not limited to, those indicating the degree of the condition, such as applicable, somewhat applicable, not very applicable, and not applicable. This makes it possible to extract a population of people who have or do not have a certain constitution, for example.

[0045] The extraction unit 118 extracts a cohort having a specific attribute from the population data 153 based on at least the first extraction condition and the second extraction condition. At this time, as described above, if there is a third extraction condition or the like, the cohort may be extracted taking the third extraction condition into consideration.

[0046] Here, the group data 153 is a collection of a large number of anonymous human genetic information, information on medical history, information on lifestyle habits, information on physical constitution, and other information such as medical examination data. The genetic information may be obtained by a genetic test on the donor. The information on medical history, information on lifestyle habits, and information on the medical history of close relatives may be obtained by conducting a questionnaire survey of the donor. In this way, it is possible to set conditions for extracting donor information using not only genetic information but also at least one of medical history, lifestyle habits, and medical history of close relatives, making it possible to conduct research with more finely limited donor information.

[0047] The processor 110 may implement each process, function, or method disclosed in each embodiment using, for example and without limitation, one or more central processing units (CPUs), microprocessors (including MPUs, graphic processing units (GPUs), processor cores, multiprocessors, application specific integrated circuits (ASICs), application specific integrated circuits (FPGAs), etc., integrated circuit (IC) chips, LS) or dedicated circuitry.

[0048] The communication interface 120 transmits and receives various data to and from other devices via a network. The communication may be performed either wired or wirelessly, and any communication protocol may be used as long as the devices can communicate with each other. For example, the communication interface 120 is implemented as hardware such as a network adapter, various communication software, or a combination of these.

[0049] The input / output interface 130 includes an input device for inputting various operations to the server 100, and an output device for outputting processing results processed by the server 100. For example, the input / output interface 130 may include information input devices such as a keyboard, a mouse, and a touch panel, and an information output device such as a display device 131. Note that the server 100 may receive a predetermined input and execute a predetermined output by connecting an external input / output interface 130.

[0050] The memory 140 temporarily stores the programs loaded from the storage 150 and provides a working area for the processor 110. The memory 140 also temporarily stores various data generated while the processor 110 is executing the programs. The memory 140 may be, for example, a high-speed random access memory such as a DRAM, an SRAM, a DDR RAM, or another random access solid-state storage device, or may be a combination of these.

[0051] The storage 150 stores programs, each functional unit, and various data. The storage 150 may store, for example, the above-mentioned account data 151, medical data 152, and population data 153.

[0052] Storage 150 may also be, for example, one or more magnetic disk storage devices, optical disk storage devices, flash memory devices, or non-volatile memory such as other non-volatile solid-state storage devices, or a combination thereof. Another example of storage 150 may include one or more storage devices located remotely from processor 110.

[0053] 1.2. User terminal 2A shows a configuration of a user terminal 200 according to the present embodiment. As shown in FIG. 2A, the user terminal 200 includes, for example, a processor 210, a communication interface 220, an input / output interface 230, a memory 240, a storage 250, and one or more buses 260 for interconnecting these components. The user terminal 200 may be, for example, a smartphone, a mobile phone, a desktop, a laptop, a tablet, a handheld computing device, a wearable terminal, or the like.

[0054] The processor 210 executes processes, functions, or methods realized by codes or instructions included in a program stored in the storage 250. As shown in FIG. 2A, the processor 210 of the present embodiment may function as a transmitter / receiver 211 and a display controller 212.

[0055] The transmission / reception unit 211 may function as a transmission unit that transmits various information to another device such as the server 100, or as a reception unit that receives various information from another device, via the communication interface 220 and the network N. In the following, the transmission unit and the reception unit will be referred to as the transmission / reception unit 211 without any particular distinction between them.

[0056] For example, in one aspect, the transceiver 211 may function as a transmitter that transmits one or more topics to the server 100, and may function as a receiver that receives from the server 100 one or more pieces of related information related to the topic and priorities associated with the one or more pieces of related information.

[0057] In another aspect, the transmission / reception unit 211 may function as a transmission unit that transmits a question to the server 100, and may function as a reception unit that receives answers to the questions, correlation information related to keywords of the questions, and medical information related to keywords of the questions from the server 100.

[0058] Furthermore, in other aspects, the transmission / reception unit 211 may function as a transmission unit that transmits the first extraction conditions to the server 100, may function as a reception unit that receives options corresponding to the first extraction conditions from the server 100, may function as a transmission unit that transmits the selection results of the options to the server 100 as second extraction conditions, or may function as a reception unit that receives information regarding a cohort having specific attributes from the population data based on at least the first extraction conditions and the second extraction conditions from the server 100.

[0059] The display control unit 212 may control the display of the display device 231 to display a screen for accepting input from the user, a screen for displaying the processing results of the information input by the user, and the like.

[0060] For example, in one embodiment, the display control unit 212 may control the display of the received related information by arranging it according to priority for each topic, and may control the display of information with a high priority among the received related information on the first screen D1, and control the display of other related information on the second screen D2 according to the priority of the other related information. In this way, the information with a high priority that has been display-controlled on the first screen D1 may be displayed on the second screen D2.

[0061] Fig. 4A shows an example of a first screen D1 whose display is controlled by the display device 231 of the user terminal 200. Fig. 4B shows an example of a second screen D2 whose display is controlled by the display device 231 of the user terminal 200. Fig. 4C shows an example of a third screen D3 whose display is controlled by the display device 231 of the user terminal 200.

[0062] The display control unit 212 may display related information on the topic set by the user in the source displayed in the region R13. Here, the "source" may be a literature database of medical papers or other medical information, or may be various news sites operated by trade papers or general newspapers.

[0063] The first screen D1 may include one or more areas R11 that display related information related to a specific topic, and a customization button O11 that customizes the topic. In the example of Fig. 4A, three topics, BRCA1, DNA, and RNA, are set, and related information related to them is displayed and controlled in the area R11. Each area R11 may include an area R111 that displays the topic, an area R112 that displays an overview of each related information, a link button O12 for each related information, and a link button O13 to the second screen D2.

[0064] Region R11 may include one or more regions R112. In the example of Fig. 4A, three regions R112 are controlled and displayed in order of most recent publication date and time. Regions R112 controlled and displayed in region R11 may be arranged in order of most citations, most total views, or most recent increase in view count (Trending Article), instead of in order of most recent publication date and time. The number of regions R112 controlled and displayed in region R11 may be preset by the user.

[0065] In area R112, a title or summary of the related information may be displayed as an overview of the related information, or information such as a date may be displayed. Area R112 may function as a link, and for example, clicking on it may transition to a page of the source of the related information.

[0066] When the customize button O11 is clicked, the first display control unit may pop up the third screen D3. The third screen D3 has a topic form F31. By inputting a topic into the form F31, the display of an area R11 is controlled on the first screen D1 for each input topic. Also, by deleting a topic, the area R11 corresponding to the deleted topic may no longer be displayed.

[0067] Also, by clicking the link button O12, a transition to the page of the source of each related information may be made, or the URL of the source page may be copied. Also, by clicking the link button O12, the related information may be recorded (clipped) in association with an account. The clipped article may be made viewable later.

[0068] By clicking the link button O13, the first display control unit may transition from the first screen D1 to a second screen D2 that displays details of the related information. The second screen D2 includes an area R15 that displays one or more pieces of related information related to a predetermined topic. The area R15 may include multiple areas R16 that display summaries of individual pieces of related information. The area R16 may display at least one of the title, abstract, and author of the related information as the summary of the related information, or may display information such as a date.

[0069] The information on the related information whose display is controlled on the second screen D2 may be more detailed than the information on the related information whose display is controlled on the first screen D1. For example, the title of the related information may be displayed in the region R112 on the first screen D1, and an abstract and an author may be displayed in addition to the title in the region R16 on the second screen D2. Also, the amount of related information whose display is controlled on the second screen D2 may be greater than the amount of related information whose display is controlled on the first screen D1 in the region R112.

[0070] In addition, the title of the news displayed in area R16 may be clicked to transition to the page of the source of each news item.

[0071] In another aspect, the display control unit 212 may control the display of answers, correlation information, and medical information related to a question, and may control the display of correlation information as a correlation diagram, and may control the display of medical information divided into at least one or more categories of variants, genes, proteins, diseases, compounds, clinical trials, and publications.

[0072] Fig. 4D shows an example of a fourth screen D4 whose display is controlled by the display device 231 of the user terminal 200. Fig. 4E shows an example of a fifth screen D5 whose display is controlled by the display device 231 of the user terminal 200. Fig. 4F shows an example of a sixth screen D6 whose display is controlled by the display device 231 of the user terminal 200.

[0073] The fourth screen D4 is a screen for accepting questions and controlling the display of answers. As shown in Fig. 4D, the fourth screen D4 may have a form F41 for accepting questions, an area R41 for displaying the accepted question, and an area R42 for displaying an answer to the accepted question. For example, when "What is BRCA1?" is entered in the area R41 of the fourth screen D4, the display control unit 212 controls the display of the question "What is BRCA1?" in the area R42, and controls the display of the answer in the area R43.

[0074] Furthermore, when a question is accepted by the form F41, a button O41 for transitioning to a fifth screen D5 and a button O42 for transitioning to a sixth screen D6 may be displayed on the fourth screen D4 in response to the question. The fifth screen D5 is a screen for displaying and controlling correlation information as a correlation diagram, and the sixth screen D6 displays and controls medical information divided into at least one or more categories of variants, genes, proteins, diseases, compounds, clinical trials, and publications.

[0075] The fifth screen D5 is a screen for displaying and controlling the keywords in the accepted question and the relationships with other keywords. The fifth screen D5 includes an area R51 for inputting categories of interest of the user in order to grasp the user's interests more accurately, an area R52 for inputting more detailed objects, and an area R53 for displaying and controlling a correlation diagram.

[0076] The options displayed in area R51 of the fifth screen D5 may associate the received keyword (BRCA1) with related genes, variants, proteins, diseases, names of drugs and candidate compounds, clinical trials, publications, identifiers in portal databases such as MedGen, etc.

[0077] The options that the user can select in the region R51 may vary depending on the received question (BRCA1). For example, this region may list genes, variants, proteins, diseases, names of drugs and their candidate compounds, clinical trials, publications, and identifiers in portal databases such as MedGen in a pull-down format, from which the user can select the region of interest (e.g., protein).

[0078] In addition, the options that the user can select in region R52 may differ depending on the keyword (BRCA1) of the received question and the information selected in region R51 (protein). For example, information that more specifically identifies proteins highly related to BRCA1 may be listed in this target, and the target of the user's interest (e.g., an identifier that identifies a protein) may be selected from the list.

[0079] As described above, when the user's area of ​​interest and more detailed targets are input in the areas R51 and R52, an object O51 indicating a keyword (BRCA1) and an object O52 indicating related genes, variants, proteins, diseases, names of compounds of drugs and candidate substances, clinical trials, publications, identifiers in a portal database such as MedGen, etc. may be displayed in the area R53 in association with each other by arrows O53, as shown in Fig. 4E. Note that examples of the relationship diagram displayed in the area R53 are not limited to those shown in Fig. 4E.

[0080] Furthermore, even if, for example, a protein is selected as a region of interest to the user in region R53, region R53 does not only display the protein, but may display information on genes, diseases, etc. other than proteins in association with the keyword (BRCA1), the region of interest (protein), and the target (identifier for identifying the protein). Furthermore, in region R53, the colors of objects O51, O52 and arrow O53 may change depending on the type of gene, variant, protein, disease, compound name of drug or candidate substance, clinical trial, publication, identifier in the portal database, etc.

[0081] In addition, area R61 of the sixth screen D6 may be controlled to display search results for publications, diseases, drugs, proteins, and other items that are searched for based on keywords and synonyms or homonyms by referring to terminology data such as a thesaurus for the received question.

[0082] The sixth screen D6 is a screen for displaying and controlling search results of publications, diseases, drugs, proteins, and other results searched based on keywords and synonyms. The sixth screen D6 may display an area R61 in which information related to the keyword (BRCA1) is listed collectively for each category, such as genes, variants, proteins, diseases, names of compounds of drugs and their candidate substances, clinical trials, publications, and other identifiers. Although it varies depending on the type of gene, variant, protein, disease, etc., the list may disclose, for example, gene names, NCBI links, gene IDs, and URLs of links to various other information.

[0083] Furthermore, in another embodiment, the display control unit 212 may control the display of information about the cohort using a graph showing the population by age and by gender.

[0084] 4G shows an example of a seventh screen D7 whose display is controlled on the display device 231 of the user terminal 200. The seventh screen D7 may include an area R71 for inputting extraction conditions for a cohort, and an area R72 for displaying and controlling a cohort according to the search conditions. The extraction conditions input in the area R71 are not particularly limited, but for example, when a search target such as a disease, lifestyle, or characteristic is selected, the selectable search conditions may be changed accordingly.

[0085] Region R72 may display a graph showing the population by age and gender. This allows the male-female ratio and the population percentage by age in the population that meets the above search conditions to be understood. Furthermore, further analysis and research of genetic information, etc. can be carried out on the population identified in this way.

[0086] In addition, the configurations of the processor 210, communication interface 220, input / output interface 230, memory 240, storage 250, and bus 260 may be similar to those of the processor 110, communication interface 120, input / output interface 130, memory 140, storage 150, and bus 160.

[0087] 1.3. Operation Processing The process of the information processing device according to this embodiment and the details of each functional unit will be described with reference to Figures 5A to 5C. Figures 5A to 5C show an example of a sequence diagram showing the process performed by system 1 in this embodiment. Note that the process procedure described below is merely an example, and each process may be changed as much as possible within the scope of the technical concept of this disclosure, and steps may be omitted, replaced, or added as appropriate.

[0088] 1.3.1. Acquisition of related information 5A shows a sequence diagram of a process for acquiring related information based on a topic set by a user. In step S11, the user terminal 200 transmits the topic inputted in the form F31 of the third screen D3 in response to a user operation to the server 100, and the transmitting / receiving unit 111 of the server 100 receives the topic.

[0089] In step S12, the account management unit 112 of the server 100 records the received topic in the account data 151. In step S13, the information collection unit 113 of the server 100 collects related information based on the topic recorded in the account data 151. At this time, the information collection unit 113 may refer to the medical data 152, or may request the related information from the external server 300 and receive the extracted related information from the external server 300, as shown in FIG. 5A.

[0090] At this time, from the viewpoint of filtering out low-quality related information, the information collecting unit 113 may set restrictions on the publication date of information as an extraction condition, and extract information with a publication date newer than a predetermined date.

[0091] Then, in step S16, the priority assigning unit 114 of the server 100 assigns a priority to the related information, and in step S17, the transmitting / receiving unit 111 of the server 100 transmits the related information and the priority to the user terminal 200. Finally, in step S18, the display control unit 212 of the user terminal 200 controls the display of information with a high priority among the received related information on the first screen, and controls the display of the other related information on the second screen according to the priority.

[0092] 1.3.2. Answering and Searching 5B shows a sequence diagram of a process of answering a question from a user and a process of further knowledge search related to the question. In step S21, the user terminal 200 transmits the question entered in area R41 of the fourth screen D4 in response to a user operation to the server 100, and the transmitting / receiving unit 111 of the server 100 receives the question. The display control unit 212 of the user terminal 200 may control the display of the question entered in area R41 in area R42.

[0093] In step S22, the answer generating unit 115 of the server 100 generates an answer to the received question. In step S23, the correlation generating unit 116 of the server 100 generates correlation information related to the keywords of the question, and the information collecting unit 113 collects medical information related to the keywords of the question.

[0094] Then, in step S24, the transmitting / receiving unit 111 of the server 100 transmits the answer, correlation information, and medical information related to the question to the user terminal 200, and the transmitting / receiving unit 211 of the user terminal 200 receives them. In step S25, the display control unit 212 of the user terminal 200 may control the display of the answer to the question in area R43 of the fourth screen D4, the correlation information in the fifth screen D5, and the medical information in the sixth screen D6.

[0095] Before controlling the display of the correlation information on the fifth screen D5, the correlation generating unit 116 may execute processing based on the node start condition in order to more specifically specify the correlation diagram to be displayed. As a result, when generating correlation information (correlation diagram) for BRCA1, if the keyword of the user's question is "BRCA1" and the node start condition is gene, the correlation generating unit 116 generates the correlation diagram with the category of the node corresponding to BRCA1, which is the center (starting point) of the correlation diagram, as "gene".

[0096] Therefore, in step S26, the display control unit 212 of the user terminal 200 may display and control areas R51, R52, R53, and R54 for inputting node start conditions on the fifth screen D5, accept the user's input, and transmit it to the server 100.

[0097] Area R51 is an area for selecting the category of the node at the center (starting point) of the correlation diagram. Area R52 is an area for specifying the content in more detail according to the selected category. Specifically, if "gene" is selected in area R51, options such as gene deletion and gene inactivation can be selected in area R52.

[0098] Furthermore, region R54 may accept an input of the user's interest in the category of the node selected in region R51. Specifically, when "protein" is input in region R51, the generated correlation diagram is influenced by whether the correlation diagram is displayed as a correlation diagram of interactions between proteins or as a correlation diagram of interactions between proteins and genes. Therefore, region R54 may be provided with an option to output interactions between proteins or interactions between proteins and genes as a correlation diagram. Region R55 may further present an option to specify the correlation.

[0099] In step S27, the correlation generating unit 116 of the server 100 may update the correlation information based on the obtained information on the relationship, and in step S28, transmit the updated correlation information to the user terminal 200. Then, the display control unit 212 of the user terminal 200 may control the display of the received correlation information on the display device 231.

[0100] 1.3.3. Cohort Extraction Process 5C shows an example of a process for extracting a cohort. Specifically, in step S31, the first extraction condition is transmitted from the user terminal 200, and the extraction unit 118 of the server 100 receives it. Then, in further steps S32 and S33, the extraction unit 118 of the server 100 generates options based on the first extraction condition and transmits them to the user terminal 200.

[0101] In steps S34 and S35, the display control unit 212 of the user terminal 200 controls the display of the received options, accepts the selection of an option from the user, and transmits it to the server 100. Then, in steps S36 and S37, the extraction unit 118 of the server 100 generates new options in accordance with the selected option, and transmits them to the user terminal 200. Then, in steps S38 and S39, the display of the options is controlled, an operation from the user is accepted, and the option selected by the user is again transmitted to the server 100.

[0102] As described above, based on the selected content, the extraction unit 118 of the server 100 extracts a cohort and transmits it to the user terminal 200. Then, the display control unit 212 of the user terminal 200 controls the display of the content.

[0103] 2. Information processing method In one aspect of the information processing method of the server 100 of this embodiment, a research support device executes the steps of managing one or more topics received from a user terminal in association with the user's account data, collecting one or more related information related to the topics, which is related information on medical publications and / or clinical trials, associating a priority based on at least one or more of the publication date, number of citations, and number of views of the related information with the related information, and transmitting the related information and the priority to the user terminal.

[0104] In another aspect of the information processing method of the server 100 of this embodiment, a research support device executes the steps of receiving a question from a user terminal, generating an answer related to the question, generating correlation information related to keywords of the question, collecting medical information related to the keywords of the question, and transmitting the answer, the correlation information, and the medical information related to the question to the user terminal.

[0105] Furthermore, in another aspect of the information processing method of the server 100 of this embodiment, the following steps are executed: receiving a first extraction condition selected from medical history, lifestyle, or physical constitution from a user terminal; generating options according to the first extraction condition; transmitting the generated options to the user terminal; receiving the selection results of the options as second extraction conditions from the user terminal; extracting a cohort having specific attributes from population data based on at least the first extraction condition and the second extraction condition; and transmitting information regarding the cohort to the user terminal.

[0106] Note that since the specific aspects of the method of this embodiment have been described above in the operational processing, detailed description thereof will be omitted here.

[0107] 3. Program In one aspect of the program of the server 100 of this embodiment, the research support device is caused to execute the steps of managing one or more topics received from a user terminal in association with the user's account data, collecting one or more pieces of related information related to the topic, if the related information is related to medical publications and / or clinical trials, associating a priority based on at least one or more of the publication date, number of citations, and number of views of the related information with the related information, and transmitting the related information and the priority to the user terminal.

[0108] In another aspect of the program of the server 100 of this embodiment, the research support device is caused to execute the steps of receiving a question from a user terminal, generating an answer related to the question, generating correlation information related to keywords of the question, collecting medical information related to the keywords of the question, and transmitting the answer, the correlation information, and the medical information related to the question to the user terminal.

[0109] In another aspect of the program of the server 100 of this embodiment, the research support device executes the steps of receiving, from a user terminal, a first extraction condition selected from medical history, lifestyle, or physical constitution, generating options according to the first extraction condition, transmitting the generated options to the user terminal, receiving from the user terminal the selection results of the options as second extraction conditions, extracting a cohort having specific attributes from population data based on at least the first extraction condition and the second extraction condition, and transmitting information regarding the cohort to the user terminal.

[0110] The program may be recorded on a readable recording medium. Since the specific aspects of the processing executed by the program of the present embodiment have been described above in the operation processing, detailed description thereof will be omitted here. [Explanation of symbols]

[0111] 1...system, 100...server, 110...processor, 111...transmitter / receiver, 112...account management unit, 113...information collection unit, 114...priority assignment unit, 115...answer generation unit, 116...correlation generation unit, 117...option generation unit, 118...extraction unit, 120...communication interface, 130...input / output interface, 131...display device, 140...memory, 150...storage, 151...account data, 152...medical data, 153...population data, 160...bus, 200...user terminal, 210...processor, 211...transmitter / receiver, 212...display control unit, 220...communication interface, 230...input / output interface, 231...display device, 240...memory, 250...storage, 260...bus, 300...external server

Claims

1. an account management unit that manages one or more topics received from a user terminal in association with the user's account data; an information collecting unit for collecting one or more pieces of relevant information related to the topic, the information being related to medical publications and / or clinical trials; a priority assignment unit that assigns a priority to the related information based on at least one of a publication date, a citation count, and a view count of the related information; A transmission unit that transmits the related information and the priority to the user terminal. Research support equipment.

2. Research support equipment, managing one or more topics received from a user terminal in association with account data of the user; collecting one or more relevant pieces of information related to said topic, the relevant pieces of information being related to medical publications and / or clinical trials; Associating a priority with the related information based on at least one of a publication date, a number of citations, and a number of views of the related information; transmitting the related information and the priority to the user terminal. Research support methods.

3. Research support equipment, managing one or more topics received from a user terminal in association with account data of the user; collecting one or more relevant pieces of information related to said topic, the relevant pieces of information being related to medical publications and / or clinical trials; Associating a priority with the related information based on at least one of a publication date, a number of citations, and a number of views of the related information; transmitting the related information and the priority to the user terminal; program.

4. A sending unit that sends one or more topics to a server; a receiving unit that receives, from a server, one or more pieces of related information related to the topic and a priority associated with the one or more pieces of related information; a display control unit that controls display of the received related information in order according to the priority for each of the topics; the display control unit controls display of the received related information, the information having a high priority, on a first screen, and controls display of the other related information on a second screen according to the priority. Research support terminal.

5. A receiving unit that receives a question from a user terminal; an answer generation unit that generates an answer to the question; a correlation generating unit for generating correlation information related to keywords of the question; an information collecting unit that collects medical information related to keywords of the question; A transmitting unit that transmits the answer, the correlation information, and the medical information regarding the question to the user terminal. Research support equipment.

6. Research support equipment, receiving a query from a user terminal; generating an answer related to said question; generating correlation information regarding keywords of the query; collecting medical information related to keywords of the query; transmitting the answer, the correlation information, and the medical information related to the question to the user terminal. Research support methods.

7. Research support equipment, receiving a query from a user terminal; generating an answer related to said question; generating correlation information regarding keywords of the query; collecting medical information related to keywords of the query; transmitting the answer, the correlation information, and the medical information related to the question to the user terminal. program.

8. a sending unit for sending a query to a server; a receiving unit that receives an answer to the question, correlation information related to a keyword of the question, and medical information related to the keyword of the question from the server; a display control unit that controls display of the answer, the correlation information, and the medical information related to the question, The display control unit controls the display of the correlation information as a correlation diagram, and controls the display of the medical information by dividing it into at least one or more categories of variants, genes, proteins, diseases, compounds of drugs or candidate substances thereof, clinical trials, and publications. Research support terminal.

9. A receiving unit that receives a first extraction condition selected from medical history, lifestyle, or constitution from a user terminal; an option generation unit that generates options according to the first extraction condition; A transmission unit that transmits the generated options to the user terminal; the receiving unit receiving from the user terminal a selection result of the option as a second extraction condition; An extraction unit that extracts a cohort having a specific attribute from population data based on at least the first extraction condition and the second extraction condition; The transmitting unit transmits information about the cohort to the user terminal. Research support equipment.

10. Research support equipment, receiving a first extraction condition selected from medical history, lifestyle, or constitution from a user terminal; generating options according to the first extraction condition; transmitting the generated options to the user terminal; receiving a selection result of the option from the user terminal as a second extraction condition; Extracting a cohort having a specific attribute from the population data based on at least the first extraction condition and the second extraction condition; transmitting information about the cohort to the user terminal; Research support methods.

11. Research support equipment, receiving a first extraction condition selected from medical history, lifestyle, or constitution from a user terminal; generating options according to the first extraction condition; transmitting the generated options to the user terminal; receiving a selection result of the option from the user terminal as a second extraction condition; Extracting a cohort having a specific attribute from the population data based on at least the first extraction condition and the second extraction condition; transmitting information about the cohort to the user terminal; program.

12. a transmission unit that transmits a first extraction condition selected from medical history, lifestyle, or constitution to a server; a receiving unit that receives options corresponding to the first extraction condition from the server; the transmission unit that transmits the selection result of the option to the server as a second extraction condition; The receiving unit receives information about a cohort having a specific attribute from population data based on at least the first extraction condition and the second extraction condition from the server; A display control unit that controls the display of the information about the cohort using a graph showing the population by age and gender, Research support terminal.

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