US20040068422A1 - Medical information system - Google Patents

Abstract

A medical information system has a patient terminal device, a server, and an administrator terminal device, characterized in that:

the patient terminal device, the server, and the administrator terminal device are connected together on a network;

the patient terminal device includes sensors having functions for measuring information used as indices of the condition of a patient's health; part for transferring measured data obtained by the sensors to an interior of the patient terminal device; part for transferring the measured data from the sensors to the server via the network; and part for accepting control information from the server, and has a function of taking action based on the control information;

the server includes part for transmitting the control information to the patient terminal device; and part for storing and sorting out the measured data transferred from the patient terminal device; and

the administrator terminal includes part for viewing the measured data stored and sorted out in the server.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
• 1. Field of the Invention[0001]
• The present invention relates to a remote medical technology for transmitting data between a practitioner and a remote patient by using a network.[0002]
• 2. Description of the Related Art[0003]
• Despite an increased lifetime expectancy resulting from improved medical technologies, what is called aging of society, that is, an increase in the ratio of the number of aged people to the population, becomes a global problem. In the aging society, the incidence of chronic diseases such as diabetes, heart diseases, and rheumatism increases necessarily. It is a great burden or pain on patients with chronic diseases to go to hospital for a long period of time, while practitioners must spend too long a time in treating such patients to undertake more critical treatments.[0004]
• In these circumstances, remote medical systems using computer communications have been proposed. In a typical example, a patient terminal comprises a computer having sensors such as a clinical thermometer and a hemadynamometer connected thereto to communicate a remote computer possessed by a practitioner. Thus, the patient can make basic measurements at home without going to hospital and is required to visit the practitioner only if the patient must truly be treated, thereby reducing the burdens on both patient and practitioner.[0005]
• However, the number of chronic-disease patients to be treated by one practitioner has been increasing rapidly, so that the above described on-to-one communications do not necessarily improve any substantial medical efficiency in that the practitioner must spend an amount of time treating each patient.[0006]
• In view of these conventional situation, it is an object of the present invention to provide a medical information system that can improve the medical efficiency without making any burden for the practitioner.[0007]
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
• The 1[0008]^stinvention of the present invention (corresponding to claim1) is a medical information system, comprising a patient terminal device, a server, and an administrator terminal device, characterized in that:
• said patient terminal device, said server, and said administrator terminal device are connected together on a network;[0009]
• said patient terminal device includes sensors having functions for measuring information used as indices of the condition of a patient's health; means for transferring measured data obtained by said sensors to an interior of said patient terminal device; means for transferring said measured data from said sensors to said server via the network; and means for accepting control information from said servers and has a function of taking action based on said control information;[0010]
• said server includes means for transmitting the control information to said patient terminal device; and means for storing and sorting out said measured data transferred from said patient terminal device; and[0011]
• said administrator terminal includes means for viewing said measured data stored and sorted out in said server.[0012]
• The 2[0013]^ndinvention of the present invention (corresponding to claim2) is the medical information system according to the 1^stinvention, characterized in that said server has a function for managing information unique to a user using said patient terminal device and can supply individual data or individual control information to said patient terminal device based on the information unique to said user.
• The 3[0014]^rdinvention of the present invention (corresponding to claim3) is the medical information system according to the 1^stinvention, characterized in that said sensors comprises at least one of a clinical thermometer, a hemadynamometer, a pulsimeter, a blood sugar level meter, a saturated blood oxygen densitometer, scales, a fat meter, a stethoscope, an electrocardiograph, a still image pickup device, an animation image pickup device, and a spirometer.
• The 4[0015]^thinvention of the present invention (corresponding to claim4) is the medical information system according to the 1^stinvention, characterized in that said server possesses predetermined schedule information for individual patients and transmits a request to said patient terminal device in accordance with the schedule information, said patient terminal device takes action depending on the request.
• The 5[0016]^thinvention of the present invention (corresponding to claim5) is the medical information system according to the 4^thinvention, characterized in that said server compares said schedule information with measured data transferred from said patient terminal device in terms of time to change said schedule.
• The 6[0017]^thinvention of the present invention (corresponding to claim6) is the medical information system according to the 5^thinvention, characterized in that if the measured data is transmitted from the patient terminal ahead of a scheduled time and the difference in time is within an allowable range, said server changes the schedule to avoid said request corresponding to the measured data.
• The 7[0018]^thinvention of the present invention (corresponding to claim7) is the medical information system according to the 7^thinvention, characterized in that if the measured data is transmitted from said sensors before said request has been transmitted and the difference in time between a measuring time and said subsequently transmitted corresponding request is within an allowable range, said patient terminal device does not take action depending on the request.
• The 8[0019]^thinvention of the present invention(corresponding to claim8) is the medical information system according to the 1^stinvention, characterized in that said patient terminal device possesses schedule information on the patient transmitted from said server, to take action in accordance with the schedule information.
• The 9[0020]^thinvention of the present invention (corresponding to claim9) is the medical information system according to the 8^thinvention, characterized in that said patient terminal device compares said schedule information with the measured data transferred from said sensors in terms of time to change said schedule.
• The 10[0021]^thinvention of the present invention (corresponding to claim10) is the medical information system according to the 9^thinvention, characterized in that if the measured data is transmitted to the patient terminal device ahead of a scheduled time and the difference in time is within an allowable range, said patient terminal device changes the schedule to avoid said action corresponding to the measured data.
• The 11[0022]^thinvention of the present invention (corresponding to claim11 and12) is the medical information system according to the 4^thor 8^thinvention , characterized in that in the case when said patient terminal device does not receive measured data from the sensors within a predetermined time after taking action, it takes action for warning that the patient has forgotten to make measurements.
• The 12[0023]^thinvention of the present invention (corresponding to claim13) is the medical information system according to the 1^stinvention, characterized in that said server possesses threshold values for data that depend on the condition of each patient's health and has a function for transmitting a signal to said administrator terminal device via a network in the case when the measured data transferred from said patient terminal device deviate from said threshold values.
• The 13[0024]^thinvention of the present invention (corresponding to claim14) is the medical information system according to the 1^stinvention, characterized in that said patient terminal device possesses threshold values for data that depend on the condition of each patient's health and has a function for transmitting a signal to said administrator terminal device via a network in the case when the measured data transferred from said patient terminal device deviate from said threshold values.
• The 14[0025]^thinvention of the present invention (corresponding to claim15) is the medical information system according to the 1^stinvention, characterized in that said server stores at least part of software driving said patient terminal device or/and said administrator terminal device and has a function operating when said software is updated, to automatically update said software in said patient terminal device or/and said administrator terminal device.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
• FIG. 1 is a schematic view showing the configuration of a network for a medical information system according to one embodiment of the present invention.[0026]
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS
• [0027]1 Client
• [0028]2 Server
• [0029]3 Host
• [0030]4 WAN
• [0031]10 CPU
• [0032]21 Main DB
• [0033]22 Schedule DB
• [0034]23 Threshold DB
• 24 Patient information DB[0035]
DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
• An embodiment of the present invention will be described below. A medical information system according to the present invention comprises a patient terminal device (hereafter referred to as a “client”), a server (hereafter referred to as a “server”), and an administrator terminal device (hereafter referred to as a “host”), which are connected together on a network.[0036]
• The client has sensors having functions for measuring information used as indices of the condition of a patient's health, means for transferring measured data obtained by the sensors to an interior of the client, means for transferring the measured data from the sensors to the server via the network, and means for accepting control information from the server. The client also has a function for taking action based on the control information.[0037]
• The server has means for storing and sorting out the measured data transferred from the client, while the host has a function for viewing the measured data stored and sorted out in the server.[0038]
• In the medical information system according to the present invention, the server is not a simple site to which data are stored but constitutes a system acting as a center in taking action. The server can request the client to take action such as turning-on or -off of a sleep state of the client terminal, a data transfer command, and a measurement indication.[0039]
• To realize these operations, all information may be placed only in the server, which transmits control signals from the server. Alternatively, the control information is stored in the client so that the client can solely carry out the above described control. The control information, however, is also stored in the server, and management of the information such as listing or changed is executed on the server.[0040]
• For data from the sensors, threshold values are stored on the server for each patient so that when data are transferred to the server, the server can compare the current data with the threshold values to find errors in order to determine action must be taken. The server take actions such as warning against the host or the client.[0041]
• Alternatively, the threshold information for each patient which is managed on the server is transferred to the client beforehand so that the client can compare this information with the data to take action such as a warning to the client, the server, or the host.[0042]
• (Embodiment 1)[0043]
• [0044]Embodiment 1 of the present invention will be explained in detail below with reference to FIG. 1. This figure is a schematic view showing the configuration of a network for a medical information system according to one embodiment of the present invention. Aclient1 has an 1)interface11 for transferring data from sensors such as a clinical thermometer, a hemadynamometer, a sphygmograph, a blood glucose meter, a saturated blood oxygen densitometer, an electrocardiograph, and a spirometer to aCPU10, an 2) analog sound signal input interface12 having a stethoscope connected thereto, an 3)interface13 having an electronic camera for still images connected thereto, and an 4)interface13 having a video camera for animations (desirably a digital video camera) connected thereto.
• According to this embodiment, however, data from the scales and the spirometer, which are displayed on these sensors, are manually read and input on the computer in order to reduce costs and because these sensors do not necessarily require automatic inputs.[0045]
• Additionally, a power module[0046]14 can turn on or off a power supply to theclient1 in response to a signal from theserver2. Motherboard in recently commercially available computers generally have a function called Wake On Call that operates if no operation has been performed for a fixed period of time after power-on, to enter a mode where theCPU10 is driven at a low speed to power down a hard disc, a display, and other peripheral devices in order to reduce power consumption, that is, to enter a sleep state and then to clear this state to return to regular operations on receiving a signal from a modem or a LAN.
• According to the present invention, the Wake On Call is treated as a kind of operation for turning on or off the power supply. In fact, the Wake On Call can reduce the costs of the main body more sharply than the use of the power module[0047]14 for complete turn-on and -off operations. It can also reduce the time required for recovery. Thus, this embodiment uses the Wake On Call function.
• The[0048]server2 also has a 1)main database21 that stores all data from the patient, a 2)schedule database22 that stores schedules for temporal actions, a 3)threshold database23 that stores threshold values for the data, and a 4)patient information database24 that stores patient's personal information, which are all managed by so-called database software.
• Next, the databases (hereafter simply referred to as “DBs”), on which operations are based, will be described. First, the schedule DB[0049]22 is shown in (Table 1).

  	Patient

  	Patient A	Patient B	. . .

  Power-on	7:00	8:00
  Power-off	20:30	22:00
  Temperature	8:00, 13:00	8:10
  Blood pressure	8:00, 13:00	14:00
  Pulse rate
  Oxygen concentration		14:00, 19:00
  Blood sugar level	8:00, 13:00, 20:00
  ECG		15:00
  Weight		14:00
  Fat		14:00
  Stethoscope	13:00
  Image	16:00
  Data transfer	OEM	OSD

• One file contains schedules for all patients. More specifically, the horizontal axis indicates patient names or client identification numbers, while the vertical axis indicates all action items. Each section shows a point of time at which the action is taken for the patient, but the number of data in each section is not necessarily one but may vary depending the section. For example, a patient A must have his or her temperature measured at 8:00 and 13:00, so that the two points of time are described in the corresponding section by inserting a comma therebetween.[0050]
• Next, the main DB[0051]21 (the patient A's data of Dec. 1, 2000) is shown in (Table 2).

  TABLE 2
  Time data were obtained	200012010802	200012011302	200012011602	200012012002
  Temperature	36.6	36.5
  Blood pressure (maximum)	185	190
  Blood pressure (minimum)	125	128
  Pulse rate	68.5	71.5
  Oxygen concentration
  Blood sugar level	205.2	125.8		115.0
  ECG
  Weight
  Fat
  Stethoscope	S12010802AB
  Image	C12010802AB

• One file is provided for each patient or each date. The horizontal axis indicates the points of time when the data were obtained, while the vertical axis indicates each data item. The data are essentially described in a text format but the stethoscope data is an audio file and is so large that only the file name is described. The ECG data and the image are also so large that only their file names are described. The first character of the description identifies the type of data; that is, S indicates a stethoscope, C indicates images, and E indicates ECG (is not contained in the data sections in this embodiment). The subsequent number indicates a date and a point of time, and the two final characters are the patient's ID.[0052]
• Naturally-enough, the[0053]main DB21 has a large file configuration. Accordingly, an optimal configuration method may vary depending on the system configuration or database software used In short, it is important to efficiently store the patient names or client ID numbers, the times when the data were obtained, the data types, and the data contents.
• Next, the threshold DB[0054]23 is shown in (Table 3).

  	TABLE 3
  	Patient A	Patient B	Patient C	Patient X

  Temperature	37.0	38.0	38.0	38.0
  Blood pressure	X	150	150	150
  (maximum)
  Blood pressure	X	60	60	60
  (minimum)
  Pulse rate (maximum)	150	120	120	120
  Pulse rate (minimum)	X	X	X	X
  Oxygen concentration	90	85	90	90
  Blood sugar level	200	120	120	120
  Weight	D1000	U70.0	L48.5	D1000
  Fat	40	35	35	35

• A threshold value of each measured item is described for each patient. For example, the patient A is abnormal if his or her temperature exceeds 37.0°, but a patient B is normal until his or her temperature exceeds 38.0°. In the table, Xs are shown in several sections, meaning that, for example, the blood pressure abnormal value is not monitored for the patient A.[0055]
• These descriptions are provided because too many abnormal values may complicate corresponding actions to cause more critical abnormal values to be missed. For similar reasons, since, a general abnormal value of, for example, the blood sugar level is well known, this value may be applied to all the patients. A diabetes patient, however, constantly shows an abnormal value, so that a rapid change in this patient may be missed. To prevent this, threshold values for each patient are still important. Three types of descriptions are found in the weight section. The patient B is shown with U70.0, which means that the patient B is abnormal when his or her weight exceeds 70.0 kg. Likewise, a patient C is shown with L48.5, which means that 48.5 kg or lower is an abnormal value. Additionally, D1000, described for the patient A, means that the patient is abnormal when the difference between the current and preceding measured values is 1,000 g.[0056]
• A specific operation of the medical information system configured as described above will be described taking the patient A by way of example.[0057]
• Although the[0058]client1 is basically powered all day long, it is not used at night and thus automatically sleeps during this period of time.
• First, at 7 o'clock, the[0059]schedule DB22 on theserver2 detects a power-on state. Theserver2 uses the patient information DB24 to extract a telephone number of theclient device1 used by the patient A, and makes a call to this number. When the call is transmitted to theclient1 possessed by the patient A, theclient1 uses the Wake On Call function to leave the sleep state to start a normal operation.
• At[0060]8 o'clock, theserver2 detects that the patient A must measure his or her temperature, blood pressure, and blood sugar level. Theserver2 uses the patient information DB24 to extract -he telephone number of theclient device1 used by the patient A, makes a call to this number to establish a network connection, and then displays a message on a screen of the client, prompting the patient to make measurements.
• The message displayed is, for example, “Measurement Time. Measure Temperature, Blood Pressure, and Blood Sugar Level”.[0061]
• In addition, the patient is prompted to measure the temperature, blood pressure, and blood sugar level and allow a stethoscope measurement to be measured at 13:00, to photograph an image at 16:00, and to measure the blood sugar level in a similar manner at 20:00.[0062]
• The pulse rate section of the scheduling DB[0063]22 in this embodiment is empty, but since typical hemadynamometers and oxygen densitometers also measure the pulse rate, the pulse rate is automatically measured when the blood pressure or the oxygen concentration is measured even if a point of time is not specified.
• Similarly, after power-on is detected at 8 o'clock, the patient B is prompted to measure the temperature at 8:10, measure the blood pressure, oxygen concentration, weight, and fat at 14:00, measure the ECG at 15:00, and measure the oxygen concentration at 19:00.[0064]
• The data measured as described above are, first of all, recorded in a storage device (in this case, a hard disc) in the main body of the clients. Subsequently, the data are transferred using timings corresponding to settings on the[0065]server2. These timings are described in the data transfer section of the scheduling DB22. As shown in Table 1, possible contents of the descriptions include a transfer each time measurements are made (OEM: On Every Measurement), a transfer at the end of the day (OSD: On Shut Down), or a time specification (in this case, for example, fifteen twenty-five is 15:25).
• Since the patient A is shown with the OEM description, data are transferred whenever the measurements are made. This method is characterized in that the practitioner can determine the patient's condition with the smallest temporal delay but is unsuitable for a system with a larger number of clients integrated therewith because the line is disadvantageously occupied for a long period of time.[0066]
• On the other hand, the patient B is shown with the OSD description. In this case, when the server delivers a power-off signal to the client at 22:00, the client transfers all the data for the day and then enters an off state (in this case, the client sleeps). The advantages and disadvantages of this method are opposite to those of the OEM; since all the data are delivered with a single connection, latency required to establish the network is shortened to save the period of time that the network is occupied. On the contrary, the practitioner reads data delayed by 12 hours at maximum.[0067]
• A compromise between these methods is to set transfer times for each patient, but this method requires cumbersome settings and management and is thus not employed for this embodiment.[0068]
• Once the data have been transferred as described above, they are registered in the[0069]main database21. For example, the patient A's data of Dec. 1, 2000 indicate that the temperature, blood pressure, pulse rate, blood sugar level, and stethoscope data were recorded at 8:02 (the top row shows an acceptance date and time in the order of year, month, day, and time. That is to say, in this case, 200012010802 is shown.)
• The scheduled measuring time is 8:00, while the actual measuring time is 8:02; that is, there is a difference of two minutes between these times. More specifically, when each data is obtained, a header section there includes information on the measuring time. Thus, even if the data transfer is set for the OSD, the accurate measuring time is recorded.[0070]
• Here, the[0071]server2 compares the data measuring time with the descriptions in the scheduling DB to determine whether or not the scheduled measurements have been made. When a fixed period of time (in this embodiment, 30 minutes) has passed after the scheduled time, theserver2 transmits another type of alarm signal to theclient1, and theclient1 displays a more precise alarm message with an unpleasant beep sound instead of a simple prompt message.
• On the contrary, patients who have much experience in measurements understand that their measurement time is about 8:00, and may make measurements at 7:55. If the patient make measurements a head of the schedule, results of the measurements are considered to be formal, for example, if the difference in time is equal to or shorter than 10 minutes, that is, an allowable value. That is, the patient is not warned of the scheduled measurements at 8:00 and the subsequent warnings are avoided. That is, the[0072]server2 changes the schedule. On the contrary, if the measurements are made more than 10 minutes ahead of the schedule, for example, at 7:30 in the above example, these measurement data are ignored and the patient is warned of the scheduled measurements at 8:00. That is, the schedule is not changed.
• Alternatively, the[0073]server2 may not carry out such a process but theclient1 may compare the request transmitted from theserver2 based on the schedule with the results of measurements from the sensors to determine whether the difference in time is smaller than the allowable value. If the difference is smaller than the allowable value, the data are considered to be formal. If the difference is larger than the allowable value, the data are neglected.
• The server 2-can compare the data transferred as described above with the descriptions in the threshold DB[0074]24. For example, the patient A obtained a blood sugar level of 205 at 8:02 on Dec. 1, 2000, which value exceeds a threshold of 200 specified for this patient. On detecting this, thesensor2 can take various actions.
• In this case, when such data from the[0075]server2 are viewed on thehost3, the characters are displayed with red. Thus, until the practitioner uses thehost3 to view the data, abnormal values are not found.
• Accordingly, to communicate information in more real time, an electronic mail may be automatically transmitted, for example, to an information terminal carried by the practitioner, the mail stating that, for example, “patient A measured a blood sugar level of 205 at 8:02 on Dec. 1, 2000, compared to a threshold value of 200”.[0076]
• (Embodiment 2)[0077]
• In the above described[0078]Embodiment 1, all the information is placed only in theserver2. In this case, management is simplified but a network connection must be established each time action must be taken. Consequently, there is a redundant time loss of about one minute between a call between computers and the establishment of the network, and frequent actions may degrade performance. This will not be a problem if constantly connectedWANs4 are generalized in the future, but the degraded performance currently poses a problem because modem connections with analog telephone lines are generally used.
• To prevent the degraded performance, this embodiment transmits all actions, for example, power-on and off and measuring times for each sensor from the[0079]server2 to theclient1 beforehand as schedule information and stores this information in theclient1. The contents of an action plan are the same as those in (Table 1).
• The[0080]client1 can detect times while sleeping. At set points of time, theclient1 starts up automatically to enter a normal state, while displaying a message such as a greeting. First, theclient1 is automatically connected to theserver2 to check whether or not the schedule has been changed. More specifically, when theclient1 is connected to theserver2, it searches theserver2 for its own schedule to check the date when the schedule was prepared. If a schedule is present which has been created later than the one possessed by theclient1, theclient1 automatically loads it to update the schedule to the latest.
• The[0081]client1 subsequently performs operations such as warnings of scheduled measurements, data transfers, and power-off based on the descriptions in the schedule.
• In this case, as described in[0082]Embodiment 1, theclient1 also compares the schedule possessed thereby with the results of measurements from the sensors. When the measurements were made ahead of the schedule and if the difference in time is smaller than the allowable value, the results are considered to be formal and the patient is not warned of the measuring time. If the difference in time is larger than the-allowable value, the results are neglected because they are out of the scheduled range.
• The present invention is media carrying programs and/or data for allowing a computer to execute all or some of the functions of all or some of the above described means or devices according to the present invention, the programs and/or data being readable by the computer and being read to execute the functions in cooperation with the computer.[0083]
• The data include data themselves as well as data structures, data formats, and data types.[0084]
• The media include recording media such as ROMs, transmission media such as the Internet, and transmission media such as optical, electric, and acoustic waves.[0085]
• The carrying media include, for example, recording media having the program/data recorded thereon, transmission media for transmitting the program/data, and the like.[0086]
• The expression “the media can be processed by the computer” means that the recording media such as ROMs can be read by the computer or the transmission media can be handled by the computer as a result of a transmission.[0087]
• The information assembly includes, for example, software such as programs and/or data.[0088]
• As described above, the configuration of the present invention may be implemented using software or hardware.[0089]
• As described above, the present invention enables the entire medical information system connecting a patient's home and a remote practitioner together via a network to systematically function as an entire system to provide society with efficient medical treatments as have not been realized by the prior art.[0090]

Claims (17)

What is claimed is:

1. A medical information system, comprising a patient terminal device, a server, and an administrator terminal device, characterized in that:

said patient terminal device, said server, and said administrator terminal device are connected together on a network;

said patient terminal device includes sensors having functions for measuring information used as indices of the condition of a patient's health; means for transferring measured data obtained by said sensors to an interior of said patient terminal device; means for transferring said measured data from said sensors to said server via the network; and means for accepting control information from said server, and has a function of taking action based on said control information;

said server includes means for transmitting the control information to said patient terminal device; and means for storing and sorting out said measured data transferred from said patient terminal device; and

said administrator terminal includes means for viewing said measured data stored and sorted out in said server.

2. The medical information system according toclaim 1, characterized in that said server has a function for managing information unique to a user using said patient terminal device and can supply individual data or individual control information to said patient terminal device based on the information unique to said user.

3. The medical information system according toclaim 1, characterized in that said sensors comprises at least one of a clinical thermometer, a hemadynamometer, a pulsimeter, a blood sugar level meter, a saturated blood oxygen densitometer, scales, a fat meter, a stethoscope, an electrocardiograph, a still image pickup device, an animation image pickup device, and a spirometer.

4. The medical information system according toclaim 1, characterized in that said server possesses predetermined schedule information for individual patients and transmits a request to said patient terminal device in accordance with the schedule information, said patient terminal device takes act-on depending on the request.

5. The medical information system according toclaim 4, characterized in that said server compares said schedule information with measured data transferred from said patient terminal device in terms of time to change said schedule.

6. The medical information system according toclaim 5, characterized in that if the measured data is transmitted from the patient terminal ahead of a scheduled time and the difference in time is within an allowable range, said server changes the schedule to avoid said request corresponding to the measured data.

7. The medical information system according toclaim 4, characterized in that if the measured data is transmitted from said sensors before said request has been transmitted and the difference in time between a measuring time and said subsequently transmitted corresponding request is within an allowable range, said patient terminal device does not take action depending on the request.

8. The medical information system according toclaim 1, characterized in that said patient terminal device possesses schedule information on the patient transmitted from said server, to take action in accordance with the schedule information.

9. The medical information system according toclaim 8, characterized in that said patient terminal device compares said schedule information with the measured data transferred from said sensors in terms of time to change said schedule.

10. The medical information system according toclaim 9, characterized in that if the measured data is transmitted to the patient terminal device ahead of a scheduled time and the difference in time is within an allowable range, said patient terminal device changes the schedule to avoid said action corresponding to the measured data.

11. The medical information system according toclaim 4, characterized in that in the case when said patient terminal device does not receive measured data from the sensors within a predetermined time after taking action, it takes action for warning that the patient has forgotten to make measurements.

12. The medical information system according toclaim 8, characterized in that in the case when said patient terminal device does not receive measured data from the sensors within a predetermined time after taking action, it takes action for warning that the patient has forgotten to make measurements.

13. The medical information system according toclaim 1, characterized in that said server possesses threshold values for data that depend on the condition of each patient's health and has a function for transmitting a signal to said administrator terminal device via a network in the case when the measured data transferred from said patient terminal device deviate from said threshold values.

14. The medical information system according toclaim 1, characterized in that said patient terminal device possesses threshold values for data that depend on the condition of each patient's health and has a function for transmitting a signal to said administrator terminal device via a network in the case when the measured data transferred from said patient terminal device deviate from said threshold values.

15. The medical information system according toclaim 1, characterized in that said server stores at least part of software driving said patient terminal device or/and said administrator terminal device and has a function operating when said software is updated, to automatically update said software in said patient terminal device or/and said administrator terminal device.

16. A medium carrying programs and/or data for allowing a computer to execute all or some of functions of all or some of means or devices of the present invention according to any ofclaims 1 to15, characterized in that the medium can be processed by the computer.

17. An information assembly, characterized by comprising programs and/or data for allowing a computer to execute all or some of functions of all or some of means or devices of the present invention according to any ofclaims 1 to15.

Images