Intelligent prompting

Claim 1

A method for intelligently prompting a user with a list of medical findings when the user is creating a medical document, comprising the steps of: (a) inputting at least one medical finding into the medical document, wherein each medical finding is assigned a point value for each diagnosis; (b) calculating a total number of points for each diagnosis after the medical findings have been entered; (c) selecting at least one diagnosis from those having highest point totals; (d) prompting the user with a list of additional medical findings which are associated with the selected diagnoses and which have not yet been inputted into the medical document so that the user can select some of the additional medical findings for addition to the medical document; and (e) repeating steps (b)-(d) when additional medical findings are inputted into the medical document so as to dynamically recreate the list of medical finding based on all of the inputted medical findings, wherein the point value for each medical finding for each diagnosis may change from the originally assigned point value with the passage of time.

Claim 2

A method for intelligently prompting a user with a list of medical findings when the user is creating a medical document, comprising the steps of: (a) inputting at least one medical finding into the medical document, wherein each medical finding is assigned a point value for each diagnosis; (b) calculating a total number of points for each diagnosis after the medical findings have been entered; (c) selecting at least one diagnosis from those having highest point totals; (d) prompting the user with a list of additional medical findings which are associated with the selected diagnoses and which have not yet been inputted into the medical document so that the user can select some of the additional medical findings for addition to the medical document; and (e) repeating steps (b)-(d) when additional medical findings are inputted into the medical document so as to dynamically recreate the list of medical finding based on all of the inputted medical findings, wherein the point value for each medical finding for each diagnosis may change from the originally assigned point value with the passage of time.

Claim 11

A device for intelligently prompting a user with a list of medical findings when the user is creating a medical protocol, comprising: storage means for storing a list of possible diagnoses and a plurality of medical findings associated with each diagnosis, wherein each medical finding for each diagnosis has been assigned a numerical value; means for entering medical findings into said device and adding the entered medical findings to the medical protocol; means for calculating a point total for each diagnosis based upon the medical findings which have been entered; means for selecting at least one diagnosis from those having highest point totals; and means for prompting a user on a display with additional findings which are associated with the selected at least one diagnosis and which have not yet been entered; wherein after the user adds at least one of the additional medical findings to the medical protocol, the calculating means recalculates the point totals for each diagnosis based on all of the medical findings in the medical protocol, the selecting means selects at least one diagnosis from those having highest point totals, and the prompting means prompts the user with additional finding which are associated with the newly selected at least one diagnosis and which have not yet been entered.

Claim 12

A device for intelligently prompting a user with a list of medical findings when the user is creating a medical protocol, comprising: storage means for storing a list of possible diagnoses and a plurality of medical findings associated with each diagnosis, wherein each medical finding for each diagnosis has been assigned a numerical value; means for entering medical findings into said device and adding the entered medical findings to the medical protocol; means for calculating a point total for each diagnosis based upon the medical findings which have been entered; means for selecting at least one diagnosis from those having highest point totals; and means for prompting a user on a display with additional findings which are associated with the selected at least one diagnosis and which have not yet been entered; wherein after the user adds at least one of the additional medical findings to the medical protocol, the calculating means recalculates the point totals for each diagnosis based on all of the medical findings in the medical protocol, the selecting means selects at least one diagnosis from those having highest point totals, and the prompting means prompts the user with additional finding which are associated with the newly selected at least one diagnosis and which have not yet been entered.