75 results about "Standard of care" patented technology

As shown in the drawings for purposes of illustration, a method and system for making physical modifications to intraocular targets is disclosed. In varying embodiments, the method and system disclosed herein provide many advantages over the current standard of care. Specifically, linear absorption facilitated photodecomposition and linear absorption facilitated plasma generation to modify intraocular tissues and synthetic intraocular lenses.

The current invention is directed to methods for reducing the cost of healthcare by improving the standard of care and by encouraging healthy behavior. Additionally, the methods of the current invention are designed to help improve clinical and economic outcomes through the principles of empowerment and accountability. The methods of the current invention provide financial incentives to both the patient and the medical practitioner in an interactive, web-based incentive system that creates appropriate and powerful checks and balances that motivate medical practitioners and patients to participate and to be adherent to beneficial performance standards. The methods of the current invention achieves the objectives of improved healthiness and better and more affordable healthcare by aligning the interests of medical providers, patients/consumers, and healthcare purchasers/payers in a win-win-win proposition. In the invention, purchasers/payers achieve lower healthcare consumption and costs by compensating medical providers and patients to declare compliance to beneficial performance standards on an intermediary's Internet application, and then having both parties confirm each other's compliance. The methods of the current invention incorporates evidence-based medicine treatment guidelines and content and other performance standards, and dispenses information therapy and other similar types of content through an Internet application or by other means to improve the standard of healthcare treatment and promote healthy behavior, which leads to better clinical outcomes and a reduction in the overall cost of healthcare.

Life-threatening hepatotoxicity in the setting of acetaminophen overdose is due to depletion of glutathione (GSH), a vital cysteine-containing tripeptide that protects cells and organs against oxidant injury. Rapid administration of N-acetylcysteine (NAC), which provides the cysteine necessary to replenish the depleted GSH, is the standard of care for preventing injury in acetaminophen overdose. Beneficial effects of NAC treatment have also been demonstrated in respiratory, cardiovascular, endocrine and infectious and other diseases. In fact, over fifty randomized placebo-controlled trials conducted in diverse clinical settings document positive responses to NAC treatment. The present invention relates to cysteine/glutathione (GSH) deficiency as a previously unrecognized clinical entity that can complicate the course of commonly encountered diseases and methods of treatment of this generalized deficiency involving administering N-acetylcysteine (NAC) or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt or derivative to a subject in need thereof and monitoring the subjects appropriate glutathione blood levels as needed.

Disclosed are uses of immunotherapeutic compositions in combination with Standard of Care (SOC), or interferon therapy combined with anti-viral therapy, for the improved treatment of chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection and related conditions, including liver function. The compositions, kits and uses of the invention, as compared to the use of SOC therapy alone: improves the rate of early response to therapy as measured by early virologic markers (e.g., RVR and EVR), enlarges the pool of patients who will have sustained responses to therapy over the long term, offers shortened courses of therapy for certain patients, enables “rescue” of patients who are non-responders or intolerant to SOC therapy, improves liver function and/or reduces liver damage in patients, and enables the personalization of HCV therapy for a patient, which can result in dose sparing, improved patient compliance, reduced side effects, and improved long term therapeutic outcomes.

The invention provides methods for assessing the clinical status of a patient. In particular, the invention provides methods for identifying the presence of or likelihood of disease or disease recurrence. In practice, methods of the invention provide the ability to screen patients into one of three distinct clinical categories. Based upon measurement of clinically-relevant biomarkers in a sample obtained from a patient, the invention allows the unambiguous identification of patients who are not at risk for or do not have the relevant disease, the unambiguous identification of patients at increased risk or who have the disease; and the identification of patients who should receive standard of care treatment and/or monitoring. Use of the invention maximizes the number of patients who will receive accelerated intervention or monitoring and minimizes those patients who will receive unnecessary standard of care or accelerated intervention or monitoring.

An apparatus, system, and method are disclosed for assessing and managing behavioral risk. The present invention maintains an episode module configured to collect behavioral risk data, a risk assessment module configured to allow a user to assess behavioral risk in relation to environmental factors, and a treatment module configured to generate recommended treatment options. Beneficially, such an apparatus, system, and method takes into account the dynamic nature of behavioral risk and provides tools to aid in estimating behavioral risk, managing and communicating behavioral risk, and documenting adherence to a standard of care.

A method and apparatus for identifying and contacting customers who have not responded to reminders to schedule a return appointment, or who are due for a visit according to accepted standards of care or office policies, but have not scheduled an appointment. A management database is queried to determine which customers have failed to respond to recall notices. The resulting list of customers may be sorted or filtered so that some customers are preferentially contacted first, based on expected value or office preferences. The list may also be sorted or filtered to fill specific providers' schedules first. Customer names and contact information are then presented to schedulers so that customers may be contacted. The time and date of each contact is automatically recorded along with the outcome of the contact. A customer name is presented to a scheduler only if the same name is not being simultaneously presented to other schedulers and that customer was not too recently contacted, so that redundant or too frequent contacts are avoided.

Compositions and methods for treating type 2 diabetes and its sequelae by intravenous or subcutaneous administration of formulations of synthesized curcumin (diferuloylmethane) and concomitantly one or more anti-diabetic agents to human subjects are disclosed herein. The composition of the present invention may be used to: (i) treat patients with diabetes in advanced stages with evidence of any or all encephalopathy, retinopathy, nephropathy, pancreatitis or neoplasias; (ii) treat patients with diabetic disease status without symptomatic or pathologic evidence of associated sequelae but requiring better glycemic control than that offered by standard of care anti-diabetic; and (iii) patients with objective signs or symptoms of sequelae from diabetes of anti-diabetic drugs. One three-drug combination of the present invention includes a slow release PLGA-curcumin and an oral gliptin (DPP-4)-inhibitor or any incretin-mimetic and metformin.

A computer-implemented method for facilitating delivery of patient-care in adherence with a standard of care clinical protocol is described. The method includes monitoring, by a computing device, patient information indicative of a clinical condition, based on a clinical protocol that comprises patient-care instructions that must be completed within a time period. The method further includes providing, by the computing device, the patient-care instructions to a user based on a result of the monitoring. The method also includes determining, by the computing device, adherence to the clinical protocol based on a result of at least one of the providing patient care instructions and the patient information; and for a determination that the clinical protocol has not been adhered to, providing a recommended action request that calibrates the patient care instructions in compliance with the clinical protocol.

A tool for monitoring a course of treatment for a patient, including standards of care making up the course of treatment. The tool permits tracking of multiple patients, their diagnoses, corresponding treatment regimens, and status of those regimens. Once a diagnosis is selected by a physician, the embodiment may list the various steps and/or actions undertaken in a recommended course of treatment for that diagnosis. Such steps/actions can include tests to be performed on the patient, drugs or prescriptions to be prescribed to the patient, physical activity to be undertaken by the patient, assessments to be made by a practitioner, environmental factors to be applied to the patient and so forth. The tool also lists particular standards of care for a given diagnosis, as well as which standards of care are incomplete. The tool may also present a patient's location.

A device for topical cooling of the nervous system via cooling of cerebrospinal fluid, or CSF, using a solid thermally conductive material. The solid thermally conductive material is coupled to a heat exchange apparatus. The thermally conductive material may be coupled to any catheter that is used in existing clinical standard of care for acute neuronal injuries, such as catheters used to monitor and relieve intracranial pressure. The thermally conductive material is a biocompatible and solid material, for instance, metals such as steel, tungsten and titanium, and non-metallic materials such as thermal diamond paste.

A method for providing a patient quality monitor may include receiving an identification of quality metrics associated with each of a plurality of health care conditions in which the quality metrics correspond to external standards of care for the respective health care conditions, extracting clinical patient quality data regarding activities corresponding to the quality metrics identified from a database, sorting the clinical patient quality data according to health care condition, and presenting compliance data on a dashboard display indicative of compliance with the quality metrics of a selected one of the health care conditions based on the sorted clinical patient quality data. A corresponding computer program product and apparatus are also provided.

The present invention relates to a portable caregiver personal alert device to facilitate the improvement in the delivery of bedside patient care. The device assists caregivers in ensuring time-sensitive tasks are performed within a specific time frame and in a specific sequence to ensure efficiency, compliance with standard of care or regulation and patient comfort. The device of the present invention comprises a display, a microprocessor that monitors various tasks for multiple patients, and at least one user input feature and at least one alarm, capable of alerting a caregiver when it is time to perform the task. The device preferably includes various functions such as a bed assignment mode, a task mode for choosing applicable tasks associated with the needs of one or more bed numbers, and at least one clock for coordinating a plurality of alarms to one or more corresponding bed number and associated task.

An Integrated Head and Neck Tandem-Bracing Device for Protective Helmets is introduced for hazardous activities such as hockey, American football, and others which require safety helmet protections against head impact trauma. The default vulnerability in such hazardous events is the lack of solid securitization of the neck of helmet wearers during such activities. The novel art is designed to protect the wearer against external impact injuries to the head but essentially to the extent the neck is solidly braced, in-tandem, between helmet and torso, at instance of an impinging impact. The novel device presumes optimal protections based upon safeguarding the integrity of the central nervous system: head, neck, and all vertebrae, the torso. This standard of care and the novel technology are integral for maintaining vital safety measures which have been unanticipated by conventional equipment.

A system for monitoring and detecting the gait and other health related parameters of a user. One such parameter is monitoring of medication compliance and treatment session attendance done by a medication and liquid dispensing apparatus, which combines mechanical dispensing of medication. These parameters are provided in standard of care summaries to care providers, and are continually reported by the Optimum Recognition Blueprint as Standard of Care Summaries to care providers, as well as communicated to the end-user by the Virtual Caregiver Interface.