| Apparatus for & method of creating and transmitting a prescription to a drug dispensing location -> Monitor Keywords |
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Apparatus for & method of creating and transmitting a prescription to a drug dispensing locationRelated Patent Categories: Data Processing: Financial, Business Practice, Management, Or Cost/price Determination, Automated Electrical Financial Or Business Practice Or Management Arrangement, Health Care Management (e.g., Record Management, Icda Billing)Apparatus for & method of creating and transmitting a prescription to a drug dispensing location description/claimsThe Patent Description & Claims data below is from USPTO Patent Application 20080071572, Apparatus for & method of creating and transmitting a prescription to a drug dispensing location. Brief Patent Description - Full Patent Description - Patent Application Claims
RELATED PATENT APPLICATIONS & INCORPORATION BY REFERENCE [0001] This application is a continuation application of U.S. application Ser. No. 10/448,965, filed May 30, 2003, now U.S. Pat. No. 7,260,402, which claims the benefit under 35 USC 119(e) of U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 60/384,954, entitled "Apparatus For & Method Of Creating and Transmitting A Prescription To A Drug Dispensing Location," filed Jun. 3, 2002. These related applications are incorporated herein by reference and made a part of this application. If any conflict arises between the disclosure of the invention in this continuation application and that in the related provisional application, the disclosure in this continuation application shall govern. Moreover, the inventor incorporates herein by reference any and all U.S. patents, U.S. patent applications, and other documents cited or referred to in this application or cited or referred to in the U.S. patents and U.S. patent applications incorporated herein by reference. DEFINITIONS [0002] The words "comprising," "having," and "including," and other forms thereof, are intended to be equivalent in meaning and be open ended in that an item or items following any one of these words is not meant to be an exhaustive listing of such item or items, or meant to be limited to only the listed item or items. BACKGROUND OF INVENTION [0003] A point of care such as a doctor's office typically lies some distance from a drug dispensing location such as a pharmacy. A patient typically receives a prescription at the doctor's office and then travels to the pharmacy where the prescription is filled. Presently, a doctor creates a prescription by learning of the patient's symptoms, diagnosing the aliment, and then choosing drugs that will cure the aliment, or control its symptoms. Typically, a doctor hand writes a prescription. Frequently a pharmacist misinterprets the doctor's handwriting and the wrong drug is dispensed to the patient. Consumption of an improper drug can lead to patient illness and sometimes death. According to the 1999 Institute of Medicine Report, there were about one million serious medication errors per year in the United States because of illegible handwriting on prescriptions, misplaced decimal points, and missed drug interactions and allergies. Thus, there is a need to create prescriptions that are legible and accurate. There is also a need to communicate the prescription directly to the pharmacy. SUMMARY OF INVENTION [0004] This invention has one or more features as discussed subsequently herein. After reading the following section entitled "DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF SOME EMBODIMENTS OF THIS INVENTION," one will understand how the features of this invention provide its benefits. The benefits of this invention include, but are not limited to: creating and transmitting accurately a prescription from a prescriber (herein medical practitioner) to a remote drug dispensing location, providing a portable and convenient to use hand-held device for prescribing and transmitting prescriptions to a remote drug dispensing location, improving the accuracy of prescriptions by providing computerized means of creating and validating drug choices and by providing communication of the prescription directly from the medical practitioner to the drug dispensing location, and avoiding or at least significantly reducing human errors in connection with prescribing drugs. [0005] Briefly, this invention includes a method of creating a prescription using a portable device. The portable device employs a graphical user interface enabling the medical practitioner to select one or more drugs from a list of drugs and transmit the selected drug or drugs as a prescription to a remote drug dispensing location. The list may be a drug database defined by the geographical location of the medical practitioner or the field of practice of the medical practitioner, or both. A list of drugs may be displayed on the portable device for viewing by the medical practitioner. The device enables the medical practitioner to select the desired prescribed drug from this list. Optionally, the list may be based on specific aliments or symptoms of a patient that the medical practitioner enters into the device that is programmed to recommend one or more drugs to be used to treat these symptoms. A medical practitioner creates a prescription by selecting drugs from the list and providing at least sufficient information to identify the patient. Other patient data that is considered confidential or private and access only by authorized personnel. For example, this patient data may be encrypted and only accessed by those having decrypting software, or the data may be in a secured data bank that can only be accessed using a password or other means for identifying authorized users. The device transmits the prescription to a computer, for example, and the computer transmits the prescription to the drug dispensing location using a global computer network, i.e., the Internet. Alternately, or in conjunction with the Internet, a care giving facility may use an intranet where private patient data is stored on the intranet's server. [0006] One or more of the following steps are conducted in practicing the method of this invention: [0007] (1) acquiring patient data, [0008] (2) acquiring patient aliment or symptoms, [0009] (3) diagnosing patient aliment or symptoms, [0010] (4) selecting drugs from a group of drugs defined by the aliments, or symptoms, or medical practitioner's geographical location of practice, or the medical practitioner's field of practice, [0011] (5) deriving a prescription from the selection, [0012] (6) communicating the prescription to the drug dispensing location, [0013] (7) querying whether patient information is available on an accessible database, [0014] (8) inputting patient information if the patient information is not available on the accessible database. [0015] In one embodiment of the method of this invention, its steps include identifying patient symptoms, inputting the patient symptoms in to the device, providing a list of drugs associated with treating said symptoms, and selecting at least one drug from the list. In another embodiment of the method of this invention, its steps include identifying a patient aliment, inputting the patient aliment in to the device, providing a list of drugs associated with treating said aliment, and selecting at least one drug from the list. [0016] Without limiting the scope of this invention as expressed by the claims that follow, some, but not necessarily all, of its features are: [0017] One, this invention includes a system for creating a prescription by a medical practitioner and communicating this prescription to a remote drug dispensing location. The system may comprise a portable, hand held device, a communication link that transmits the selected drug prescription and patient information to a selected drug dispensing location, and a data receiver at the remote drug dispensing location that receives the selected drug and patient information. The medical practitioner may be certified to practice in a specific medical field and the listing of drugs may be limited to the practitioner's specific medical field. The system may include a node element in communication with the portable, hand held device that receives the selected drug prescription and patient information and transmits the drug prescription and patient information to the selected drug dispensing location. It may also include a computer that receives the selected drug prescription and patient information and transmits via a network the drug prescription and patient information to the selected drug dispensing location. The listing of a plurality of prescription drugs applicable to the specific medical field may be transmitted from a remote location to the device. One or more drug dispensing locations may be transmitted from these remote locations to the device. One or more drug dispensing locations may be selected based on a geographical region. The communication link may be hard wired or wireless, for example, a radio transmitter, an infrared transmitter, a wired transmitter, or an ultrasonic transmitter. [0018] Two, the portable, hand held device of this invention may have (i) a display, (ii) a memory that may store (a) a listing of a plurality of prescription drugs, and (b) one or more drug dispensing locations, and (iii) a data input mechanism that enables the practitioner to identify a patient, select a drug dispensing location, select from the listing one or more of the listed prescription drugs to be dispensed at the selected drug dispensing location, and to enter specific dose for the selected prescription drug, The patient's name and other data such as previous prescriptions, aliments, symptoms, etc. may be stored in the memory of the portable, hand held device or at a remote, accessible location. The device may have a removable memory that stores the listing of a plurality of prescription drugs, one or more drug dispensing locations, or other useful information or data. The data input mechanism may be a keyboard. The portable, hand held device may have a plurality of interactive screens retained in the memory for displayed by the display screen. It may also include a selector device enabling the medical practitioner to move from one screen to another. [0019] These features are not listed in any rank order nor is this list intended to be exhaustive. DESCRIPTION OF DRAWING [0020] Some embodiments of this invention, illustrating all its features, will now be discussed in detail. These embodiments depict the novel and non-obvious device, system and method of this invention as shown in the accompanying drawing, which is for illustrative purposes only. This drawing includes the following figures (Figs.), with like numerals indicating like parts: [0021] FIG. 1 is a schematic view illustrating a medical practitioner transmitting a prescription from the medical practitioner's office to a pharmacy at a remote location using one embodiment of the portable, hand held device of this invention for creating a prescription. [0022] FIG. 2a is front view of the portable, hand held device shown in FIG. 1. [0023] FIG. 2b is a back view of the device shown in FIG. 2a. [0024] FIG. 3 is schematic diagram of the portable, hand held device of this invention shown in FIG. 1. [0025] FIG. 4 is front view of a second embodiment of the portable, hand held device of this invention with an integrated keypad. [0026] FIG. 5 is schematic view illustrating the device, a wireless node, and a computer. [0027] FIG. 6 is front view of a removable memory card for the device shown in FIG. 1. 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