Medical Diagnosis Support System for Lung Function Prediction

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Solution Overview

Problem

Current medical diagnosis support systems do not effectively address lung function diagnosis for pulmonary disorders like asthma or COPD, lacking comprehensive support for predicting future lung function based on lifestyle habits.

Innovation Solution

A medical diagnosis support system that acquires lifestyle habit information and uses a trained identifier to estimate future lung function, outputting results such as X-ray images, spirometry graphs, or diagnostic charts to visually convey the potential impact of maintaining current habits on lung health.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Reliability

If a medical diagnosis support system is developed for lung function prediction, then diagnostic capability for pulmonary disorders is improved, but system complexity increases

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvediagnostic capabilityVSAvoidsystem complexity
Core Design Contradiction:
ReliabilityVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The system integrates multiple diagnostic functions into a single platform, including lung function prediction, lifestyle habit analysis, and visual feedback generation. The trained identifier serves as a universal computational model that can process various input parameters (age, smoking habits, occupational exposure) and generate comprehensive diagnostic outputs, thereby improving reliability without proportionally increasing complexity.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #6Universality (Multi-functionality)

Solution Approach 2:

The patent introduces visual intermediaries such as X-ray images, spirometry graphs, and diagnostic charts as mediators between the complex computational processes and the end user. These visual representations simplify the interpretation of prediction results, making the complex system more usable while maintaining diagnostic accuracy.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #24Intermediary (Mediator)

2Measurement precision

If future lung function is estimated using lifestyle habit information, then preventive diagnostic accuracy is improved, but information processing requirements increase

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvepredictive accuracyVSAvoiddata processing load
Core Design Contradiction:
Measurement precisionVSQuantity of substance

Solution Approach 1:

The system performs preliminary processing by collecting and organizing lifestyle habit information (smoking habits, occupational exposure, exercise routines) before the actual prediction process. The trained identifier is pre-trained on comprehensive datasets, enabling it to process new inputs efficiently without requiring intensive real-time computation, thus balancing predictive accuracy with data processing requirements.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #10Preliminary action

Solution Approach 2:

The patent uses visual copies and representations of lung function data (X-ray images, spirometry curves) that can be generated and stored without requiring the original complex computational data. These visual copies serve as efficient representations that maintain diagnostic value while reducing data processing and storage requirements.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #26Copying

Data Source

PatentUS20210375461A1Medical diagnosis support system, medical diagnosis support program, and medical diagnosis support method
Publication Date: 2021.12.02 KONICA MINOLTA INC
  • US20210375461A1 patent drawing
  • US20210375461A1 patent drawing
  • US20210375461A1 patent drawing

AI summary

A medical diagnosis support system including a hardware processor configured with a program to perform operations including: operation as an acquisition part configured to acquire lifestyle habit information of a subject; operation as an estimation part configured to estimate, using a trained identifier, future lung function of the subject from information on the subject, the information on the subject including the lifestyle habit information acquired from the acquisition part; and operation as a control part configured to control an output part to output a result that has been estimated by the estimation part.