Home health care system

Claim 1

A health care system comprising: a patient station including a first videophone, an electronic imaging assembly and a stethoscope assembly, coupled to said first videophone, for respectively producing digital image and physiological sound signals of a patient, wherein said first videophone simultaneously transmits said digital signals over a public telecommunications network; a health care provider's station including a second videophone, a video display and a sound reproducer, wherein said second videophone receives said digital signals from said first videophone over said public telecommunications network, displays said images of said patient on said display, and reproduces said physiological sounds of said patient by said sound reproducer; wherein said stethoscope assembly includes a transducer for transducing physiological sounds of a patient into analog signals, a converter for converting said analog signals into raw digital physiological sound data, a recirculating buffer memory for storing said raw digital physiological sound data, a digital data compressor for compressing said raw digital physiological sound data by a compression ratio that is selectable over a range of compression ratios, and a memory for storing said compressed physiological sound data, wherein said first videophone transmits said compressed data over said network to said second videophone; and wherein said health care provider's station includes a control for commanding said compressor at said patient's station to compress said raw digital physiological sound signals at a lower compression ratio into newly compressed digital sound data to produce higher quality sound, and to retransmit said newly compressed data over said network for reproduction at said health care provider's station.