Web-based decision tree application for processing medical and health input data, modular analysis and criteria-based result evaluation for targeted user control

Abstract

The invention relates to a web-based platform for digital anamnesis for health and healthcare professions. Dynamic decision trees enable a structured, interactive survey that detects complaints and comprehensive health parameters. An integrated scoring and triage system analyses the responses for assessing the state of health and deriving targeted interventions. The platform supports the above profession groups with limited time by enabling efficient and complete data collection without reducing the quality of the supply. It promotes interdisciplinary exchange of relevant information and improves the collaboration between specialist fields. Epigenetic influencing variables are taken into account for the risk identification, and the generated recommendations are based on individual parameters in order to support a cause-oriented, preventive supply.

Description

[0001] Description

[0002] Title:

[0003] Web-based decision tree application for processing medical and health-related input data, modular analysis and criteria-based result evaluation for targeted user control.

[0004] Technical field to which the invention relates:

[0005] The invention relates to the technical field of web-based medical software applications based on decision trees, enabling structured, interdisciplinary data collection. The application utilizes a software-implemented system for the discipline-specific and interdisciplinary processing of parameters, diagnostic support, and cause-oriented solutions. An integrated early warning and triage function plays a central role by enabling prioritization to determine the urgency of medical interventions in complex cases. The technical implementation is achieved through a modular platform with a scoring system that allows for a precise assessment of health status and serves as a basis for diagnosis and the creation of personalized intervention plans for healthcare professionals.

[0006] Relevant state of the art:

[0007] The current state of the art consists of diagnostic solutions based mostly on static questionnaires and require manual evaluation.

[0008] Existing patient history software solutions, often used in specific medical specialties, are primarily designed to assign existing symptoms to a clearly defined medical diagnosis. These systems are symptom-oriented and do not allow for a comprehensive, overarching collection of health data. For example, many applications only gather information on specific complaints without considering the influence of other bodily systems or the user's overall lifestyle. Another problem is that interventions are primarily symptom-oriented, rather than targeting the underlying causes. However, clear evidence shows that our modern lifestyle, with its lack of exercise, chronic stress, and unhealthy diet, plays a central role in the development of disease.However, existing systems only inadequately consider these causal factors and lack integrated evaluation systems that enable both quantitative and qualitative analyses.

[0009] Furthermore, there is a lack of software solutions that provide healthcare professionals with targeted, cause-oriented intervention recommendations and determine the urgency of medical measures based on collected data. Likewise, interdisciplinary exchange between different specialties is not sufficiently supported, leading to fragmented treatment approaches and compromising patient safety. The lack of comprehensive, scientifically sound recommendations from a single source often contributes to delayed diagnoses, purely symptom-oriented treatment, and increased healthcare costs.

[0010] Technical problem to be solved:

[0011] The technical objective of the present invention is to develop an integrated, web-based platform that enables healthcare professionals to conduct a comprehensive digital medical history, capturing all relevant health parameters of a user across various medical specialties. The application is intended to utilize dynamic decision trees to facilitate a structured and adaptive questionnaire that not only asks specific questions about symptoms and complaints but also considers interactions between body systems and the influence of epigenetic factors. A key objective is to implement a scoring system that evaluates and analyzes user responses to provide informed diagnostic information and suggest potential interventions.

[0012] Furthermore, the platform aims to foster interdisciplinary collaboration among healthcare professionals by facilitating the exchange of relevant information and recommendations between these groups. The application will also provide mechanisms for the early identification of potential health risks, enabling preventive measures to be taken. As part of its early warning and triage function, the application will be able to assess the urgency of health problems and provide prioritized recommendations for action to ensure rapid and effective care. Another aspect of the technical challenge is to create a user-friendly interface that facilitates use for both healthcare professionals and end users, thus ensuring individualized medical and healthcare care based on each user's specific needs.Disclosure of the invention.

[0013] The present invention describes a web-based application for interdisciplinary collaboration among healthcare professionals, enabling structured, adaptive, and efficient linking of medical disciplines. It serves to efficiently collect, analyze, and evaluate health data based on scientific criteria. The application combines various technical modules, including dynamic decision trees, a scoring system for health assessment, and an early warning and triage system for prioritizing health problems. The application is characterized in particular by its flexibility, interdisciplinarity, and user-friendliness, making it intuitively usable for both professionals and patients.

[0014] Dynamic Decision Trees for Structured Data Collection

[0015] A key element of the application is the adaptive decision tree logic, which enables targeted, individualized collection of health data. Unlike conventional static forms, the Decision Tree dynamically adapts to the user's input. For example, after entering a specific symptom, follow-up questions can be asked that specifically address possible causes or accompanying symptoms.

[0016] These decision trees are designed to not only capture the specific questions of individual disciplines, such as cardiology, oncology or orthopedics, but also to integrate interdisciplinary questions that take into account all relevant aspects of the user's health status.

[0017] They are based on medically validated algorithms that can be regularly updated to reflect the latest scientific findings. This allows for a high degree of flexibility and ensures that the patient history is always current. This dynamic structure ensures that users only need to answer relevant questions, making data collection not only more efficient but also simpler.

[0018] At the same time, redundant or superfluous questions are avoided, which increases the accuracy and user-friendliness of the application. Scoring system

[0019] A scoring system evaluates the collected data using a rating system embedded in each question, which incorporates all body systems, organs, and lifestyle factors. The scoring system enables a quantitative assessment of a user's health status by weighting and evaluating relevant parameters. The application then generates a numerical representation of the health assessment, which can be further interpreted by experts. The results of the scoring system serve as the basis for intervention recommendations.

[0020] Intervention recommendations

[0021] Based on the patient's medical history and the results of the scoring system, the application generates personalized therapeutic and preventive recommendations for the user. These recommendations are presented at various levels:

[0022] 1. Lifestyle interventions (e.g., diet, biorhythm, exercise, stress) 2. Specific therapeutic measures (referral to experts in the healing and healthcare professions)

[0023] 3. Early warning and triage system (Presentation to the doctor as soon as possible, but not urgent, preventive examination recommended) The early warning and triage system identifies risk factors, unusual patterns and health risks at an early stage.

[0024] The individualized recommendations are based on a combination of evidence-based and medical guidelines as well as the user's individual health parameters, which are continuously adapted to the current state of scientific research and supported by new study results and findings from medical research.

[0025] Multilingualism and international usability

[0026] A key feature of the web-based application is its multilingualism and international applicability, enabling barrier-free use in different countries and cultural contexts. The application thus addresses one of the biggest challenges in the healthcare sector: the language barrier. Language barriers often lead to misunderstandings and suboptimal care for users, which not only impairs treatment outcomes but can also undermine trust in the healthcare process. By providing a multilingual user interface, the application ensures that healthcare professionals and users can communicate effectively and receive tailored, high-quality care, regardless of their linguistic background.

[0027] Data protection and security architecture

[0028] The application processes particularly sensitive health data, which is subject to the highest data protection requirements. To guarantee the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of this data, the application implements comprehensive security measures that comply with current technological standards. This includes highly secure storage using cryptographic methods and end-to-end encrypted data transmission to effectively prevent unauthorized access, manipulation, and misuse.

[0029] Example implementation:

[0030] A patient is suffering from back pain due to a herniated disc.

[0031] As shown in Figure 1, the treating physician generates a link (1) via the application, which the patient can open at home on any connected device to complete the interactive and dynamic medical history (2). First, the patient enters their personal and general data via a static process (3). This is followed by the dynamic Decision Tree (4), which enables an interdisciplinary medical history.

[0032] The user-friendly interface is designed so that laypersons can enter data via an intuitive chat function. A simple selection of single- or multiple-choice options enables the accurate and structured recording of relevant information. This form of data entry also ensures barrier-free access to the application. Medical terminology is explained clearly to avoid misunderstandings. At the same time, the interface offers experts a clear and efficient presentation of the results, allowing them to be interpreted effectively and used for diagnostic or therapeutic measures.

[0033] The application's security architecture is specifically designed to protect sensitive health data. It employs a multi-layered encryption and storage concept that ensures patient data can only be viewed and processed by authorized healthcare professionals. The web-based application's server acts as a central interface between the database, the healthcare professional, and the patient / client. For secure data processing, each registered healthcare professional receives a private key that can be used to both encrypt and decrypt data objects. Data entry is via a unique link provided to the patient / client to complete the questionnaire. Uploaded files are encrypted directly on the user's device before being transferred to the web-based application.To ensure confidentiality, the entire questionnaire is never stored or transmitted at the server level; only individual questions and their corresponding answers are processed. Each question is deleted immediately after the score is assigned, so that only the encrypted score associated with the question remains.

[0034] A further layer of security lies in the fact that the stored data does not remain on the central server, but is stored exclusively at the respective practice. Only the practice can decrypt the data using the private key and transfer it to the patient's record. This ensures the highest level of data protection and data sovereignty for users.

[0035] In the processing workflow, the dynamic Decision Trees (5) ensure that conspicuous answers in the medical history are followed by targeted, in-depth questions, thus guaranteeing a complete and precise assessment of the patient's health status. Each question is assigned to the corresponding body systems (6). The scoring system evaluates the entered answers using a weighted point system (7), which assigns values ​​of 0.25, 0.5, 0.75, or 1 depending on relevance. Each answer is assigned to a specific body system, organ, or lifestyle factor. At the end of the analysis, the systems and their overall scores are numerically recorded and displayed in a graphical visualization, providing the user with a clear and understandable overview of the results. The body system assignments and the weighting of the scoring system are continuously updated to reflect the latest scientific findings.

[0036] The application provides the technical solution by enabling all medical and health-related disciplines to be assessed through the patient history. Figuratively speaking, all physicians are in the same room, communicating with each other and developing an interdisciplinary, cause-oriented solution for the patient. This establishes an interdisciplinary link between all body systems, organs, and lifestyle factors (8) to ensure individually tailored care. The scoring system provides a numerical representation (9) of which body systems, organs, and lifestyle factors are considered abnormal.

[0037] The integrated early warning and triage system (10) analyzes the input data in real time and identifies potential emergency situations. For example, in the case of neurological deficits requiring immediate medical intervention, the urgency of care is automatically increased. If there is no acute danger, the physician can plan treatment individually according to the determined severity level.

[0038] The application's output represents cause-oriented interventions (11). The early warning and triage system (12) informs users and physicians about the urgency of medical treatment. In the example of a herniated disc, a "saddle anesthesia" is rated with the highest urgency level: the patient should see a physician as soon as possible. If this is not the case, however, a non-urgent visit to the physician is recommended.

[0039] At the scheduled appointment, the treating physician already has a complete overview of the patient's health data. This enables a targeted and efficient consultation. Furthermore, the physician can request additional diagnostic tests at any time and integrate them into the ongoing treatment. The web-based application allows continuous access to the patient's medical history, enabling precise monitoring of the treatment progress.

[0040] In the case of a herniated disc, the application offers a detailed intervention recommendation based on an evidence-based scoring system. It supports targeted interdisciplinary referral to the appropriate healthcare professionals (13) such as dentists, physiotherapists, osteopaths, kPNI therapists, and / or orthopedists. Furthermore, the application provides specific lifestyle interventions (14) for stress management, nutritional optimization, and exercise recommendations to support the patient's healthcare.

[0041] The recommendations are displayed numerically in the application and ranked by priority using a scoring system. These targeted recommendations eliminate the need for the physician to manually and thoroughly evaluate all the details. Depending on their expertise, physicians can delve deeper into specific intervention areas or refer patients to appropriate specialists.

[0042] Traditionally, patients with a herniated disc have to endure months of waiting time for a specialist appointment and attend multiple meetings with different specialists, often receiving symptom-oriented treatment approaches. The technological innovation of this application lies in the intelligent integration of all medical disciplines on a shared platform that puts the patient at the center. This platform enables efficient, coordinated, and comprehensive healthcare – comparable to a virtual consultation where all experts collaborate to develop the best possible therapy for the patient. This not only improves the quality of treatment but also significantly reduces waiting times and organizational effort.

[0043] This web-based application represents a pioneering solution for interdisciplinary collaboration among all professions in the healthcare sector by combining evidence-based medical guidelines with individual user health parameters. The flexible Decision Tree enables highly personalized data collection that dynamically addresses each user's specific needs, thereby significantly improving diagnostic accuracy and the quality of care. Continuous adaptation of the algorithms to the latest scientific findings ensures the long-term relevance and timeliness of the recommendations. Furthermore, the software optimizes communication and collaboration between different disciplines by integrating interdisciplinary questions that consider all aspects of the user's health status.

[0044] A key feature of the software is its integrated early warning and triage system, which identifies potential health risks in real time and suggests immediate actions to enable early intervention. This system helps professionals quickly recognize critical health conditions and take targeted action, significantly promoting the prevention and early treatment of illnesses.

[0045] In addition, the software considers individual lifestyle interventions tailored to the user's specific lifestyle habits and health goals. It suggests customized changes in areas such as nutrition, exercise, and stress management to promote overall health and well-being and reduce the risk of chronic diseases. It recognizes that it is difficult for a single expert to oversee the full spectrum of possible lifestyle interventions, especially since communication between different experts is often challenging. The software enables professionals to quickly and easily access a wide range of proven and personalized lifestyle interventions that can positively and sustainably influence the user's symptoms.This allows experts to recommend targeted interventions that support the healing process and improve the quality of life of the users.

[0046] By reducing redundant data and efficiently collecting relevant information, the software not only minimizes administrative effort but also increases user-friendliness and effectiveness. It thus makes a significant contribution to improving therapeutic and medical care by enabling fast, precise, and individually tailored support.

[0047] The commercial applicability of the software arises from its function in the efficient organization and optimization of medical treatment processes. The invention offers a practical solution for experts in the medical and healthcare professions to make data-driven therapy decisions and to sustainably improve patient and user care.

Claims

Patent claims 1. Entitlement to a web-based software application and its architecture for the digital collection of anamnesis data in medical and healthcare professions, which uses dynamic decision trees that flexibly adapt to the state of health and individual user data in order to enable precise data collection and health analysis optimized on the basis of the current state of science.

2. Entitlement to a scoring system that evaluates the patient's entered data in relation to various body systems and organs in an interdisciplinary manner and generates well-founded recommendations for therapeutic and preventive measures based on the analyzed data.

3. Claim to a system for generating individualized intervention recommendations according to claim 2, which analyzes the results generated by the scoring system and derives evidence-based measures taking into account individual factors such as health status, pre-existing conditions and lifestyle, and provides these in a user-friendly digital interface.

4. Entitlement to an integrated early warning and triage system for identifying and prioritizing health risks, based on the analysis of collected patient data, which detects potential health hazards at an early stage, assesses the urgency of required interventions and enables efficient allocation to the appropriate specialist departments for further medical care.

5. A claim to the recording of interdisciplinary health parameters with the possibility of determining a comprehensive variety of data and thus the user's current state.

6. A claim to the user-friendly interface according to claim 1 and claim 3, which optimizes the exchange between laypersons (e.g., patients) and experts (e.g., physicians and therapists) by simplifying data entry for the layperson while simultaneously enabling a clear and efficient interpretation of the results for the expert.

7. A claim to barrier-free use of the application according to claim 1, which optimizes the exchange between laypersons (e.g. patients) and experts (e.g. doctors and therapists) by ensuring intuitive, easy-to-understand operation for users with different physical or cognitive impairments, while simultaneously enabling a clear, efficient interpretation of the entered data for the expert.

8. Entitlement to a multilingual, international web-based application that enables interdisciplinary exchange between different geographical regions and cultures by taking into account medical, health-related, and linguistic differences.

9. Entitlement to a data protection and security architecture specifically designed for the secure handling of sensitive user and patient data, meeting both data protection and technical standards to ensure the integrity and confidentiality of the collected data.

Images