DETAILED ACTION
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55. Acknowledgement is made of applicant’s claim for foreign priority to 27 September 2019 under 35 U.S.C. 119(a)-(d).
Response to Amendment
Claims 1-17 were previously pending in this application. The amendment filed 27 May 2025 has been entered and the following has occurred: Claims 1, 5-7, & 16-17 have been amended. Claims 18-20 have been added. Claims 4 & 8-10 have been cancelled.
Claims 1-3, 5-7, & 11-20 remain pending in the application.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
Claims 1-3, 5-7, & 11-17 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
Regarding claims 1 & 16-17, the claims recite “…change settings of the plurality of viewers and types of the plurality of viewers; approve, in a case where the management target person is changed, a change to the management target person before the change, and change, in a case where the change is approved, the management target person, wherein in a case where the change is not approved, the viewer whose change is not approved is set as the non-management target person”. These limitations are substantially unclear, at least because “the change” is recited, however multiple “changes” have been established. That is, “change settings” and “a change to the management target person” are both recited, so it remains unclear which change “the change” is referencing. Furthermore, the wording of “approve, in a case where the management target person is changed, a change to the management target person before the change, and change, in a case where the change is approved, the management target person” contains substantially confusing and unclear wording/syntax. Therefore, for examination purposes, the limitations will be interpreted to recite “…change settings of the plurality of viewers and types of the plurality of viewers; when a change to the management target person is approved, changing a viewer to the management target person, and when a change to the management target person is not approved, setting the viewer as the non-management target person”;
Regarding claims 2-3, 5-7, & 11-15, the claims are dependent from independent claim 1, and therefore inherit the deficiencies of claim 1 by virtue of dependency.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 101
35 U.S.C. 101 reads as follows:
Whoever invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof, may obtain a patent therefor, subject to the conditions and requirements of this title.
Claims 1-3, 5-7, & 11-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claimed invention is directed to a judicial exception (i.e., a law of nature, a natural phenomenon, or an abstract idea) without significantly more.
The claims recite subject matter within a statutory category as a process (claim 16 & 19), machine (claims 1-3, 5-7, 11-15 & 18), and manufacture (claim 17 & 20) which recite steps of:
store a main body status table and a viewer-specific status table in a memory;
generate a display screen for displaying patient identification information and a medical care process in association with each other for each of a plurality of patients;
display, on the display screen, a status of the medical care process being unread or read according to a main body status recorded in the main body status table for each of the plurality of patients, wherein the main body status includes information indicating the medical care process being unread or read;
manage a viewer-specific status separately from the main body status according to the viewer-specific status table, wherein
the viewer-specific status includes information indicating a viewing status of each of each of a plurality of viewers with respect to the medical care process being a status of each of a plurality of viewers who is assigned to the medical care process and being recorded in the viewer-specific status table, wherein
the plurality of viewers includes a first viewer classified into a read target person and a second viewer classified into a non-read target person, and the first viewer is designated to be more relevant with respect to the second viewer for viewing the medical care process, and the viewer-specific status of the first viewer and the second viewer are respectively recorded in the viewer-specific status table, and wherein
the read target person is classified into a management target person who is a specific viewer and a non-management target person other than the management target person;
monitor and update the viewer-specific status by acquiring the status of the medical care process from each of the first and second viewers in real time through a network;
update the main body status of the medical care process in the main body status table to read when the viewer-specific status of the management target person is changed from unread to read;
not update the main body status of the medical care process in the main body status table to read when the viewing status of the management target person has not changed to read even when the viewing status of the second viewer has changed to read;
update the status of the medical care process being displayed on the screen according to the updated main body status of the medical care process in the main body status table which is updated by referring to the viewer-specific status of the first viewer in the viewer-specific status table.
change setting of the plurality of viewers and types of the plurality of viewers by displaying a correspondence list showing a correspondence between the medical care process and the read target person and reflecting a change operation performed on the correspondence list;
when a change to the management target person is approved, changing a viewer to the management target person, and
when a change to the management target person is not approved, setting the viewer as the non-management target person.
These steps of generating a display screen for displaying patient identification information and a medical care process, assigning roles of viewers of said medical care process that may or may not change over time, displaying one or more statuses including information indicating the care process being unread or read when seen by the one or more viewers, managing the one or more statuses, and updating the one or more statuses according to varying, related human activity data, such as a table regarding statuses of humans/progress of human activities such as a medical care process, and displaying the updated statuses on a screen as drafted, under the broadest reasonable interpretation (BRI), includes methods of organizing human activity. MPEP 2106.04(a)(2)(II) describes certain methods of organizing human activity including concepts relating to fundamental economic principles or practices, commercial or legal interactions, and/or managing personal behavior or relationships or interactions between people (including social activities, teaching, and following rules or instructions). The above-mentioned steps amount to methods of organizing human activity at least by generating display information for interactions between an entity and a medical care support device such that displayed elements on the screen, such as a viewer-specific status or main body status, depend on interaction, i.e. viewing/human activity such as progress in a medical care process, by one or more role-assigned entities. Therefore, under BRI, the entity’s typical behaviors or interactions that take place in the medical care setting/process are effectively being managed by the medical care support device and steps performed thereon, constituting certain methods of organizing human activity. At an even broader level, the steps above effectively recite the management or tracking of human activity in the form of when medical care process content is viewed by an entity/human and reflecting said activity status in a dashboard/screen, and therefore directly relates to “organizing human activity”, i.e. organizing viewing status activity of one or more humans in a dashboard or screen. Accordingly, the claim recites an abstract idea.
Dependent claims recite additional subject matter which further narrows or defines the abstract idea embodied in the claims (such as claims 2-3, 5-7, & 11-15, reciting particular aspects of how determining elements to be displayed on a screen and/or updating statuses to reflect interaction between various entities and the display, and/or determining target persons to view said elements to be displayed, may be performed in the mind but for recitation of generic computer components).
This judicial exception is not integrated into a practical application. In particular, the additional elements do not integrate the abstract idea into a practical application, other than the abstract idea per se, because the additional elements amount to no more than limitations which:
amount to mere instructions to apply an exception (such as recitation of a memory, a medical care support device, a processor, a display screen, a non-transitory computer readable recording medium, and a computer amounts to invoking computers as a tool to perform the abstract idea, see applicant’s specification [0035] for a memory, spec [0109]-[0111] for a medical care support device, spec [0116]-[0117] for a processor, spec [0036] for a display screen, spec [0035] for a non-transitory computer readable recording medium, & spec [0035] for a computer, see MPEP 2106.05(f));
add insignificant extra-solution activity to the abstract idea (such as recitation of receiving patient identification information and a medical care process, receiving one or more statuses including information indicating the medical care process being unread or read, and recording/acquiring a viewer-specific status of each of each of a plurality of viewers with respect to the medical care process in a viewer-specific status table, receiving instructions to display elements on a screen, such as a viewer-status table and/or correspondence list, and storing of said received data amounts to mere data gathering; recitation of managing a viewer-specific status separately from a main body status that is the status of the medical care process, monitoring and updating/not updating the varying statuses based on one or more viewer-status tables and/or progress of a medical care process, changing settings of the viewers and types of viewers, approving or not approving a change to the management target person, efforts that amount to selecting a particular data source or type of data to be manipulated; recitation of displaying/updating one or more statuses and/or a correspondence list on a screen, approving a change in settings/the management target person amounts to insignificant application, see MPEP 2106.05(g); displaying elements on a screen, such as a viewer-status table and/or correspondence list, amounts to gathering and analyzing information using conventional techniques and displaying the result, TLI Communications, see MPEP 2106.05(a)(II)(iii));
generally link the abstract idea to a particular technological environment or field of use (such as recitation of the general setting of medical care, see MPEP 2106.05(h)).
Dependent claims recite additional subject matter which amount to limitations consistent with the additional elements in the independent claims (such as claims 2-3, 5-7, & 11-15, which recite limitations relating to a processor, a display screen, and one or more medical care support devices, additional limitations which amount to invoking computers as a tool to perform the abstract idea, see applicant’s specification [0116]-[0117], [0036], & [0109]-[0111], respectively; claims 2-3, 5-7, 12 & 14-15 which recite limitations relating to receiving varying statuses, receiving a correspondence table, varying instances of receiving instructions to display elements on a screen, receiving an input of a comment to the request destination, transmitting one or more statuses to another device, transmitting the display screen to another device, additional limitations which add insignificant extra-solution activity to the abstract idea which amounts to mere data gathering, claims 5 & 11-13, which recite limitations relating to classifying a viewer, changing one or more statuses or settings according to the classified viewer, approving a change to the management target person before the change and changing the management target person based on a correspondence table, not approving a change, setting a viewer of a request destination, notifying a designated request destination of the request and the comment, additional limitations which add insignificant extra-solution activity to the abstract idea by selecting a particular data source or type of data to be manipulated, claims 2-3, 5-7, & 11-15, which recite limitations relating to performing the steps generally in a medical care support setting/device additional limitations which generally link the abstract idea to a particular technological environment or field of use). Looking at the limitations as an ordered combination adds nothing that is not already present when looking at the elements taken individually. There is no indication that the combination of elements improves the functioning of a computer or improves any other technology. Their collective functions merely provide conventional computer implementation and do not impose a meaningful limit to integrate the abstract idea into a practical application.
The claims do not include additional elements that are sufficient to amount to significantly more than the judicial exception. As discussed above with respect to discussion of integration of the abstract idea into a practical application, the additional elements amount to no more than mere instructions to apply an exception, add insignificant extra-solution activity to the abstract idea, and generally link the abstract idea to a particular technological environment or field of use. Additionally, the additional limitations, other than the abstract idea per se, amount to no more than limitations which:
amount to elements that have been recognized as well-understood, routine, and conventional activity in particular fields (such as receiving patient identification information and a medical care process, receiving one or more statuses including information indicating the medical care process being unread or read, and recording/acquiring a viewer-specific status of each of each of a plurality of viewers with respect to the medical care process in a viewer-specific status table, receiving instructions to display elements on a screen, such as one or more statuses and/or correspondence list, receiving changed settings of one or more viewers, e.g., receiving or transmitting data over a network, Symantec, MPEP 2106.05(d)(II)(i); managing a viewer-specific status separately from a main body status that is the status of the medical care process, monitoring and updating/not updating the varying statuses based on one or more viewer-status tables and/or progress of a medical care process, e.g., performing repetitive calculations, Flook, MPEP 2106.05(d)(II)(ii); keeping record of and updated varying statuses, such as in the medical care support device, based on varying status tables/records, changing settings, i.e. maintaining record of settings, of one or more viewers e.g., electronic recordkeeping, Alice Corp., MPEP 2106.05(d)(II)(iii); storing one or more statuses, storing one or more computerized instructions for performance of the steps recited on the medical care support device, storing one or more instructions for displaying elements/control of a display, storing received data such as a main body status table and a viewer-specific status table in memory, e.g., storing and retrieving information in memory, Versata Dev. Group, MPEP 2106.05(d)(II)(iv); displaying/updating one or more statuses and/or a correspondence list on a screen, approving a change in settings/the management target person, presenting and gathering statistics, OIP Techs., 788 F.3d at 1362-63, 115 USPQ2d at 1092-93MPEP 2106.05(d)(II)(iv)).
Dependent claims recite additional subject matter which, as discussed above with respect to integration of the abstract idea into a practical application, amount to invoking computers as a tool to perform the abstract idea. Dependent claims recite additional subject matter which amount to limitations consistent with the additional elements in the independent claims (such as claims 2-3, 5-7, & 11-15, additional limitations which amount to elements that have been recognized as well-understood, routine, and conventional activity in particular fields, claims 2-3, 5-7, 12, & 14-15 which recite limitations relating to receiving varying statuses, receiving a correspondence table, varying instances of receiving instructions to display elements on a screen, receiving an input of a comment to the request destination, transmitting one or more statuses to another device, transmitting the display screen to another device, e.g., receiving or transmitting data over a network, Symantec, MPEP 2106.05(d)(II)(i); claims 5 & 11-13, which recite limitations relating to classifying a viewer, changing one or more statuses or settings according to the classified viewer, approving a change to the management target person before the change and changing the management target person based on a correspondence table, not approving aa change setting a viewer of a request destination, notifying a designated request destination of the request and the comment, e.g., performing repetitive calculations, Flook, MPEP 2106.05(d)(II)(ii); claims 5 & 11-13, which recite limitations to updating, i.e. changing, one or more statuses and keeping track of approved and non-approved changes, e.g., electronic recordkeeping, Alice Corp., MPEP 2106.05(d)(II)(iii); claims 2-3, 5-7, & 11-15, which recite limitations relating to storing one or more statuses, storing one or more computerized instructions for performance of the steps recited on the medical care support device, storing one or more instructions for displaying elements/control of a display, e.g., storing and retrieving information in memory, Versata Dev. Group, MPEP 2106.05(d)(II)(iv)). Looking at the limitations as an ordered combination adds nothing that is not already present when looking at the elements taken individually. There is no indication that the combination of elements improves the functioning of a computer or improves any other technology. Their collective functions merely provide conventional computer implementation.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
A patent for a claimed invention may not be obtained, notwithstanding that the claimed invention is not identically disclosed as set forth in section 102, if the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art are such that the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
Claims 1-3, 5-7, & 11-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Fujifilm et al. (“Fujifilm’s integrated medical care support platform launches new function, solution for managing image diagnosis reports as read” – NPL – 13 August 2018), hereinafter “Fujifilm” (see PTO-892, Reference U), in view of “New Medicine in Japan” (NPL – “Document 3: しポート既読管理システム開発の方向性，月刊新医療，vol. 46, no. 2, 01 February 2019, pp. 66-73, 82-89, (New Medicine in Japan), non-official translation (Directions in the development of report readstatus management systems)” – 01 February 2019), hereinafter “New Medicine in Japan” (see PTO-892, Reference V), further in view of Canon et al. (Japanese Patent Publication JP2019185418A, with filing date 04/11/2018), hereinafter “Canon”.
Claim 1 –
Regarding Claim 1, Fujifilm discloses a medical care support device comprising:
a memory, storing a main body status table and a viewer-specific status table (See Fujifilm p. 1 (Box 1) which discloses an integrated medical care support platform for use by medical systems within a hospital; See Figure “Image of unread message function” in Fujifilm p. 2 (Box 10) which also displays computer implementation of the support platform which is understood to include a processor and memory; See Fujifilm p. 1 (Box 3), Figure “Image of unread icon on clinical flow (list of multiple patients)” (Box 6) and Fig. “Image of unread icon on timeline (list by patient)” on Fujifilm p. 2 (Box 8) which disclose “the image diagnostic report read management solution newly added with this version upgrade is a function that supports the management of read and unread report” such as by displaying an unread icon, indicating whether that portion has been read or unread, in the clinical flow/timeline report of one or more patients, i.e. medical care processes of the one or more patients, thereby constituting a main body status and associated main body status table; See Fujifilm p. 3 (Boxes 11 & 12) which discloses the system being linked with read management on the departmental system side such that information can be linked when read operations are performed on the departmental system side, i.e. updating the status of a specific type of viewer from one or more viewers from a specific department, and administrators can further manage read reports with a list of whether there are unread reports within the hospital or their own department, thereby understood to constitute a viewer-specific status and associated viewer-specific status table); and
a processor (See Fujifilm p. 1 (Box 1) which discloses an integrated medical care support platform for use by medical systems within a hospital; See Figure “Image of unread message function” on Fujifilm p. 2 (Box 10) which also displays computer implementation of the support platform which is understood to include a processor and memory) configured to:
generate a display screen for displaying patient identification information and a medical care process in association with each other for each of a plurality of patients (See Fujifilm p. 1 (Box 2) which discloses “CITA Clinical Finder making it possible to quickly grasp patient medical information and the overall picture of the medical process” such as by displaying a list of patient medical information such as test images and findings reports, i.e. medical care process, and displays any patient in a list and displays information such as patient attributes, presence of medical documents/consent forms, and test implementation status; See Fujifilm p. 2 (Box 4) which discloses managing individual patients and/or multiple patients at once);
display, on the display screen, a status of the medical care process being unread or read according to a main body status recorded in the main body status table for each of the plurality of patients (See Fujifilm p. 1 (Box 3), Figure “Image of unread icon on clinical flow (list of multiple patients)” (Box 6) and Fig. “Image of unread icon on timeline (list by patient)” on Fujifilm p. 2 (Box 8) which disclose “the image diagnostic report read management solution newly added with this version upgrade is a function that supports the management of read and unread report” such as by displaying an unread icon, indicating whether that portion has been read or unread, in the clinical flow/timeline report of one or more patients, i.e. medical care processes of the one or more patients), wherein the main body status includes information indicating the medical care process being unread or read (See Fujifilm p. 1 (Box 3), Figure “Image of unread icon on clinical flow (list of multiple patients)” (Box 6) and Fig. “Image of unread icon on timeline (list by patient)” on Fujifilm p. 2 (Box 8) which disclose “the image diagnostic report read management solution newly added with this version upgrade is a function that supports the management of read and unread report” such as by displaying an unread icon, indicating whether that portion has been read or unread, in the clinical flow/timeline report of one or more patients, i.e. medical care processes of the one or more patients, thereby constituting a main body status and associated main body status table);
manage a viewer-specific status separately from the main body status according to the viewer-specific status table (See Fujifilm p. 1 (Box 3) and Figure “Image of unread icon on clinical flow (list of multiple patients)” on Fujifilm p. 2 (Box 6) which discloses “the image diagnostic report read management solution newly added with this version upgrade is a function that supports the management of read and unread report” such as by displaying an unread icon in the clinical flow, constituting displaying a viewer-specific status, i.e. unread icon indicating the medical care process is unread or read, and the main body status, i.e. progress or step in a clinical workflow), wherein
the viewer-specific status includes information indicating a viewing status of each of a plurality of viewers with respect to the medical care process, wherein the plurality of viewers includes a first viewer and a second viewer, and the viewer-specific status of the first viewer and the second viewer are respectively recorded in the viewer-specific status table (See Fujifilm p. 3 (Box 11) which discloses the system being linked with read management on the departmental system side such that information can be linked when read operations are performed on the departmental system side, i.e. updating the status of a specific type of viewer from one or more viewers from a specific department, and administrators can further manage read reports with a list of whether there are unread reports within the hospital or their own department, thereby understood to constitute a viewer-specific status and associated viewer-specific status table),
monitor and update the viewer-specific status by acquiring the status of the medical care process from each of the first and second viewers in real time through a network (See Fujifilm p. 3 (Box 11) which discloses the system being linked with read management on the departmental system side such that information can be linked when read operations are performed on the departmental system side, i.e. updating the status of the medical care process a specific viewer; disclose “the image diagnostic report read management solution newly added with this version upgrade is a function that supports the management of read and unread report” such as by displaying an unread icon, indicating whether that portion has been read or unread, in the clinical flow/timeline report of one or more patients, i.e. medical care processes of the one or more patients; therefore, while Fujifilm generally discloses aspects regarding icons/statuses changing from one status to another, Fujifilm does not explicitly state the functionality of “updating” being performed, such as by a computer or other user via the computer per se);
update the main body status of the medical care process in the main body status table to read when the viewer-specific status of the management target person is changed from unread to read (See Fujifilm p. 1 (Box 3) and Figure “Image of unread icon on clinical flow (list of multiple patients)” (Box 6) and Fig. “Image of unread icon on timeline (list by patient)” on Fujifilm p. 2 (Box 8) which discloses “the image diagnostic report read management solution newly added with this version upgrade is a function that supports the management of read and unread report” such as by displaying an unread icon, indicating whether that portion has been read or unread, in the clinical flow/timeline report of one or more patients, i.e. medical care processes of the one or more patients, thereby constituting a main body status and associated main body status table and updating said status based on a specific viewer or doctor viewing that portion of the clinical flow/timeline report; See Fujifilm p. 1 (Box 3) and Figure “Image of unread icon on clinical flow (list of multiple patients)” (Box 6) on Fujifilm p. 2 which discloses “the image diagnostic report read management solution newly added with this version upgrade is a function that supports the management of read and unread report” such as by displaying an unread icon in the clinical flow, constituting displaying a viewer-specific status, i.e. unread icon indicating the medical care process is unread or read, and the main body status, i.e. progress or step in a clinical workflow; therefore, while Fujifilm generally discloses aspects regarding icons/statuses changing from one status to another, Fujifilm does not explicitly state the functionality of “updating” being performed, such as by a computer or other user via the computer per se);
update the status of the medical care process being displayed on the display screen according to the updated main body status of the medical care process in the main body status table which is updated by referring to the viewer-specific status of the first viewer in the viewer-specific status table (See Fujifilm p. 1 (Box 3) and Figure “Image of unread icon on clinical flow (list of multiple patients)” (Box 6) and Fig. “Image of unread icon on timeline (list by patient)” on Fujifilm p. 2 (Box 8) which disclose “the image diagnostic report read management solution newly added with this version upgrade is a function that supports the management of read and unread report” such as by displaying an unread icon, indicating whether that portion has been read or unread, in the clinical flow/timeline report of one or more patients, i.e. medical care processes of the one or more patients, thereby constituting a main body status and associated main body status table and updating said status based on a specific viewer or doctor viewing that a portion of the clinical flow/timeline report; See Fujifilm p. 3 which discloses the system being linked with read management on the departmental system side such that information can be linked when read operations are performed on the departmental system side, i.e. updating the status of the medical care process a specific viewer; disclose “the image diagnostic report read management solution newly added with this version upgrade is a function that supports the management of read and unread report” such as by displaying an unread icon, indicating whether that portion has been read or unread, in the clinical flow/timeline report of one or more patients, i.e. medical care processes of the one or more patients; therefore, while Fujifilm generally discloses aspects regarding icons/statuses changing from one status to another, Fujifilm does not explicitly state the functionality of “updating” being performed, such as by a computer or other user via the computer per se).
While Fujifilm generally discusses a system, wherein main body status and viewer-specific statuses are updated when an intended viewer reads a portion of the clinical flow/timeline report, Fujifilm does not disclose an actual updating of the read status from unread upon being read (and instead simply mentions an icon indicating either scenario, and therefore could be understood to constitute functionality for changing said icon, but this is not explicitly mentioned). Furthermore, Fujifilm is relatively silent on categorizing multiple viewers/users of the system, such as a first viewer classified into a read target person and a second viewer classified into a non-read target person, and the first viewer is designated to be more relevant with respect to the second viewer for viewing the medical care process, wherein the read target person is classified into a management target person who is a specific viewer and a non-management target person other than the management target person. Additionally, Fujifilm is relatively silent on not updating the main body status of the medical care process as read when the viewing status of the first viewer has not changed to read even when the viewing status of the second viewer has changed to read. Fujifilm is also relatively silent on approving a change to the management target person before the change, and change, in a case where the change is approved, the management target person and/or in a case where the change is not approved, the viewer whose change is not approved is set as the non-management target person.
However, “New Medicine in Japan” discloses a first viewer classified into a read target person (See “New Medicine in Japan” Box 2 which discloses a first possible viewer, such as an medical instructor of the department) and a second viewer classified into a non-read target person (See “New Medicine in Japan” Box 2 which discloses a second possible viewer, such as a resident), and the first viewer is designated to be more relevant with respect to the second viewer for viewing the medical care process (See “New Medicine in Japan” Box 2 which discloses that the system prevents residents from marking diagnostic imaging reports as read and has the medical instructor of the department in which the resident is training to confirm and mark as read the diagnostic imaging report, because it is undesirable for a resident who is an ordering physician to decide whether additional examination/treatment is necessary on his or her own, i.e. the medical instructor is designated to be more relevant than the resident), wherein the read target person is classified into a management target person who is a specific viewer and a non-management target person other than the management target person (See “New Medicine in Japan” Box 2 which discloses a first possible viewer, such as an medical instructor of the department, i.e. management target person) not updating the main body status of the medical care process in the main body status table to read when the viewing status of the management target person has not changed to read even when the viewing status of the second viewer has changed to read (See “New Medicine in Japan” (Box 2) which discloses it is undesirable for a resident who is an ordering physician to decide whether additional examination/treatment is necessary on his or her own, prohibits residents from marking diagnostic imaging reports as read, i.e. not updating the statuses, and, for imaging ordered by a resident, instead has the medical instructor of the department in which the resident is training, i.e. associated with the resident, confirm and mark as read the diagnostic imaging report, thereby constituting not updating the main body status when the resident views the imaging, and instead only updating when the medical instructor confirm and marks as read the diagnostic imaging report), change settings of the plurality of viewers and types of the plurality of viewers (See “New Medicine in Japan” (Box 2) which discloses it is undesirable for a resident who is an ordering physician to decide whether additional examination/treatment is necessary on his or her own, prohibits residents from marking diagnostic imaging reports as read, i.e. not updating the statuses, and, for imaging ordered by a resident, instead has the medical instructor of the department in which the resident is training, i.e. associated with the resident, confirm and mark as read the diagnostic imaging report, thereby constituting changing settings depending on the viewers and type thereof) when a change to the management target person is not approved, setting the viewer as the non-management target person (this limitation is understood to represent a contingent limitation, see MPEP 2111.04(II), and therefore under broadest reasonable interpretation, the second condition of “in a case where the change is not approved” does not have to be met, because the system only requires one of the conditions (i.e. either the change is approved OR the change is not approved) to be met/achieved to move forward in operation and these two instances are mutually exclusive, therefore because “New Medicine in Japan” (Box 2) generally describes a technical means, i.e. structure for performing the functions recited, that because it is undesirable for a resident who is an ordering physician to decide whether additional examination/treatment is necessary on his or her own, prohibits residents from marking diagnostic imaging reports as read and, for imaging ordered by a resident, has the medical instructor of the department in which the resident is training confirm and mark as read the diagnostic imaging report, i.e. the system approves the management target person before the change or confirming and marking the report, this limitation is considered met since the condition of “in a case where the change is not approved” is not required to actually ever occur under BRI). The disclosure of “New Medicine in Japan” is directly applicable to the disclosure of Fujifilm because both disclosures share limitations and capabilities such as both being directed towards management of varying clinical documents in a medical setting through an electronic means.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the disclosure of Fujifilm with the teachings of “New Medicine in Japan” because some entities in a medical facility may not be of necessary skill or training to make decisions or edits on certain medical cases and would require assistance from a formal medical instructor or physician (See “New Medicine in Japan” Box 2). Additionally, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the disclosure of Fujifilm with the teachings of “New Medicine in Japan” regarding approving or not approving a change to the management target person, because some entities in a medical facility may not be of necessary skill or training to make decisions or edits on certain medical cases and would require assistance from a formal medical instructor or physician and confirming or approving the physician or target person before said change to the document occurs allows confirmation of appropriate skill level to make such as change and/or to negate a change that is not approved (See “New Medicine in Japan” Box 1).
While Fujifilm and New Medicine in Japan generally disclose, main body status and viewer-specific statuses are updated when an intended viewer reads a portion of the clinical flow/timeline report, Fujifilm and New Medicine in Japan do not explicitly disclose an “updating” functionality, e.g. command, per se, of the read status from unread to read upon being read by a desired entity, such as by a computer or other user via the computer. Furthermore, Fujifilm and New Medicine in Japan are relatively silent on approving, in a case where the management target person is changed, a change to the management target person before the change, and change, in a case where the change is approved, the management target person.
However, Canon discloses a system and program function for read-management, such as updating of the read status from unread to read upon being read by a desired entity (See Canon Par [0045]-[0052] & [0054]-[0056] which discloses requesting a confirmation by superimposing a confirmation image for making the report read in part of the report, such that when the user presses the confirmation image, the read management function associates information indicating the read has been made with the report, and on a generated list of reports, displays/indicates that specific test of a plurality of tests in the list has been read and can be narrowed by department, requesting doctor, or most qualified/relevant doctor). Canon also discloses when a change to the management target person is approved, changing a viewer to the management target person (See Canon Par [0049] which discloses when the login by the personal ID is confirmed, the read management function marks the report as read if the user who pressed the confirmation image is a doctor who belongs to the same department, i.e. as the requesting doctor or the requesting doctor). Additionally, even though it is understood by Examiner that New Medicine in Japan entirely discloses designating viewers that are more or less relevant for a study, and/or more or less qualified, it should be noted that Canon also further discloses instances of assigning personnel as less relevant or more relevant and if a less relevant or qualified doctor tries to mark a report as, leaving a report status as unread (See Canon Par [0049] which discloses when the login by the personal ID is confirmed, the read management function marks the report as read if the user who pressed the confirmation image is a doctor who belongs to the same department as the requesting doctor or the requesting doctor, and if it is a user other than a doctor of the same department as the requesting doctor, leave it unread). The disclosure of Canon is directly applicable to the disclosure of Fujifilm and New Medicine in Japan because the disclosures share limitations and capabilities, such as being directed towards read management systems for one or more clinical reports.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the disclosure of Fujifilm and New Medicine in Japan, which already discloses main body status and viewer-specific statuses being updated when an intended viewer reads a portion of the clinical flow/timeline report to further include a system and program function for read-management, such as updating of the read status from unread to read upon being read by a desired entity and approving, in a case where the management target person is changed, a change to the management target person before the change, and change, in a case where the change is approved, the management target person, as disclosed by Canon, because this allows for certain predetermined conditions, such as the confirming doctor to be in the same department as the requesting doctor, to be satisfied, allowing for more reliable read-management (See Canon Par [0047]-[0050]).
Claim 2 –
Regarding Claim 2, Fujifilm, New Medicine in Japan, and Canon disclose the medical care support device of Claim 1 in its entirety. Fujifilm further discloses a device, wherein:
the processor is configured to display and of the viewer-specific status or the main body status on the display screen (See Fujifilm p. 1 (Box 3) and Figure “Image of unread icon on clinical flow (list of multiple patients)” on Fujifilm p. 2 (Box 6) which discloses “the image diagnostic report read management solution newly added with this version upgrade is a function that supports the management of read and unread report” such as by displaying an unread icon in the clinical flow, constituting displaying a viewer-specific status, i.e. unread icon indicating the medical care process is unread or read, and the main body status, i.e. progress or step in a clinical workflow).
Claim 3 –
Regarding Claim 3, Fujifilm, New Medicine in Japan, and Canon disclose the medical care support device of Claim 1 in its entirety. Fujifilm further discloses a device, wherein:
the processor is configured to display both the viewer-specific status and the main body status on the display screen (See Fujifilm p. 1 (Box 3) and Figure “Image of unread icon on clinical flow (list of multiple patients)” on Fujifilm p. 2 (Box 6) which discloses “the image diagnostic report read management solution newly added with this version upgrade is a function that supports the management of read and unread report” such as by displaying an unread icon in the clinical flow, constituting displaying a viewer-specific status, i.e. unread icon indicating the medical care process is unread or read, and the main body status, i.e. progress or step in a clinical workflow).
Claim 5 –
Regarding Claim 5, Fujifilm, New Medicine in Japan, and Canon disclose the medical care support device of Claim 1 in its entirety. Fujifilm further discloses a device, wherein:
in a case where a plurality of the management target persons are set and all the statuses of the plurality of management target persons are changed from unread to read, the main body status is changed from unread to read by reflecting the changed statuses (See Fujifilm p. 1 (Box 3) and Figure “Image of unread icon on clinical flow (list of multiple patients)” on Fujifilm p. 2 (Box 6) which discloses “the image diagnostic report read management solution newly added with this version upgrade is a function that supports the management of read and unread report” such as by displaying an unread icon in the clinical flow, constituting displaying a viewer-specific status, i.e. unread icon indicating the medical care process is unread or read, and the main body status, i.e. progress or step in a clinical workflow, and under broadest reasonable interpretation without specifying “in a selectable manner on the display screen”, these statuses could very well be selectable on the display screen since they are displayed; See Fujifilm p. 3 which discloses administrators who manage read reports, such as management-level doctors, and implying the converse or non-management-level doctors; See Fujifilm p. 3 which discloses the system being linked with read management on the departmental system side such that information can be linked when read operations are performed on the departmental system side, i.e. reflecting a status of a specific type of viewer from a specific department, and can further indicate whether there are unread/read reports within the whole hospital or their own department).
Claim 6 –
Regarding Claim 6, Fujifilm, New Medicine in Japan, and Canon disclose the medical care support device of Claim 1 in its entirety. Fujifilm further discloses a device, comprising:
a correspondence table in which a third viewer who is allowed to deal with the medical care process alone and a fourth viewer who is prohibited from dealing with the medical care process alone are associated with each other (See Fujifilm p. 3 (Box 11) which discloses the system being linked with read management on the departmental system side such that information can be linked when read operations are performed on the departmental system side, i.e. reflecting a status of a specific type of viewer from a specific department, and can further indicate whether there are unread/read reports within the whole hospital or their own department, which further is understood by Examiner to constitute a correspondence list/table showing a target person, i.e. people in a department, and changing settings/operations based on departmental factors/specifics such as if the interface is being viewed on a department’s own device, then the department’s people/entities are prepopulated as implied by the disclosed aspects on p. 3 (Box 11), however Fujifilm does not seem to explicitly recite a first viewer who is allowed to deal with the medical care process alone and a second viewer who is prohibited from dealing with the medical care process alone), and
As discussed above, Fujifilm seems to disclose a list or table of target persons, i.e. people in a particular department, being referred to for determining which entities correspond to which read/unread items in the list, however Fujifilm does not explicitly recite a first viewer who is allowed to deal with the medical care process alone and a second viewer who is prohibited from dealing with the medical care process alone.
However, “New Medicine in Japan” discloses a third viewer who is allowed to deal with the medical care process alone and a fourth viewer who is prohibited from dealing with the medical care process alone (While not “third” and “fourth” viewers per se, “New Medicine in Japan” (Box 2) generally describes a technical means that because it is undesirable for a resident who is an ordering physician to decide whether additional examination/treatment is necessary on his or her own, prohibits residents from marking diagnostic imaging reports as read and, for imaging ordered by a resident, instead has the medical instructor of the department in which the resident is training confirm and mark as read the diagnostic imaging report, and in the instance of one or more residents or one or more medical instructors, “New Medicine in Japan” effectively reads on the limitation, and while Applicant may specify a first, second, third, and/or fourth viewer, Fujifilm already discloses a list or table of target persons, i.e. people in a particular department, such that on the table at least four viewers are listed and therefore the combination of Fujifilm and “New Medicine in Japan” is understood to effectively read on this plurality of viewers) and in a case where the fourth viewer is set as the management target person, the processing is further configured to set the third viewer associated with the fourth viewer an other management target person together with the fourth viewer based on the correspondence table (Applicant points to Par [0125] of the published specification by way of example/support for the amended limitation of setting the first viewer associated with the second viewer and other management target person together with the second viewer based on the correspondence table, such as by “in a case where a correspondence table is provided in which a second viewer of the resident, etc. is associated with a first viewer of the instructor, etc. who guides the resident and the second viewer is set as the management target person, the main body status may not be marked as read unless the first viewer associated with the second viewer has read the medical care process”, therefore in light of Applicant’s Specification, “New Medicine in Japan” (Box 2) which generally describes a technical means that because it is undesirable for a resident who is an ordering physician to decide whether additional examination/treatment is necessary on his or her own, prohibits residents from marking diagnostic imaging reports as read and, for imaging ordered by a resident, instead has the medical instructor of the department in which the resident is training, i.e. associated with the resident, confirm and mark as read the diagnostic imaging report; and while Applicant may specify a first, second, third, and/or fourth viewer, Fujifilm already discloses a list or table of target persons, i.e. people in a particular department, such that on the table at least four viewers are listed and therefore the combination of Fujifilm and “New Medicine in Japan” is understood to effectively read on this plurality of viewers).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to further modify the combined disclosure of Fujifilm, New Medicine in Japan, and Canon with further teachings from “New Medicine in Japan” because some entities in a medical facility may not be of necessary skill or training to make decisions or edits on certain medical cases and would require assistance from a formal medical instructor or physician (See “New Medicine in Japan” ).
Claim 7 –
Regarding Claim 7, Fujifilm, New Medicine in Japan, and Canon disclose the medical care support device of Claim 1 in its entirety. Fujifilm further discloses a device, wherein:
the processor is configured to display the viewer-specific status of the read target person on the display screen (See Fujifilm p. 1 (Box 3) and Figure “Image of unread icon on clinical flow (list of multiple patients)” on Fujifilm p. 2 (Box 6) which discloses “the image diagnostic report read management solution newly added with this version upgrade is a function that supports the management of read and unread report” such as by displaying an unread icon in the clinical flow, constituting displaying a viewer-specific status, i.e. unread icon indicating the medical care process is unread or read, and the main body status, i.e. progress or step in a clinical workflow; See Fujifilm p. 3 (Box 12) which discloses administrators who manage read reports, such as management-level doctors, and implying the converse or non-management-level doctors; See Fujifilm p. 3 (Boxes 11 & 12) which discloses the system being linked with read management on the departmental system side such that information can be linked when read operations are performed on the departmental system side, i.e. reflecting a status of a specific type of viewer from a specific department, and can further indicate whether there are unread/read reports within the whole hospital or their own department).
Claim 11 –
Regarding Claim 11, Fujifilm, New Medicine in Japan, and Canon disclose the medical care support device of Claim 1 in its entirety. Fujifilm further discloses a device, wherein:
the processor is configured to set a viewer of a request destination who has been requested to perform the medical care process as the read target person (See Fujifilm p. 3 (Boxes 11 & 12) which discloses the system being linked with read management on the departmental system side such that information can be linked when read operations are performed on the departmental system side, i.e. reflecting a status of a specific type of viewer from a specific department, and can further indicate whether there are unread/read reports within the whole hospital or their own department, which is understood by Examiner to constitute a request destination, i.e. department, that is requested to perform the medical care process).
Claim 12 –
Regarding Claim 12, Fujifilm, New Medicine in Japan, and Canon disclose the medical care support device of Claim 11 in its entirety. Fujifilm further discloses a device, wherein:
the processor is configured to receive an input of a comment to the request destination and notify a designated request destination of the request and the comment (See Fujifilm p. 2 (Box 9) which describes a report being revised, i.e. receiving input of a comment, and further a revision notification being displayed and as seen in Figure “Image of unread message function” on Fujifilm p. 2 (Box 10) a message, i.e. input of a comment, that is unread is shown as notification on the screen with the input and comment).
Claim 13 –
Regarding Claim 13, Fujifilm, New Medicine in Japan, and Canon disclose the medical care support device of Claim 1 in its entirety. Fujifilm further discloses a device, wherein:
the processor is configured to change the settings of the plurality of viewers and types of the plurality of viewers by displaying a correspondence list showing a correspondence between the medical care process and the read target person and reflecting a change operation performed on the correspondence list (See Fujifilm p. 3 (Boxes 11 & 12) which discloses the system being linked with read management on the departmental system side such that information can be linked when read operations are performed on the departmental system side, i.e. reflecting a status of a specific type of viewer from a specific department, and can further indicate whether there are unread/read reports within the whole hospital or their own department, which further is understood by Examiner to constitute a list showing a target person, i.e. people in a department, and changing settings/operations based on departmental factors/specifics such as if the interface is being viewed on a department’s own device, then the department’s people/entities are prepopulated as implied by the disclosed aspects on p. 3 (Box 11)).
Claim 14 –
Regarding Claim 14, Fujifilm, New Medicine in Japan, and Canon disclose the medical care support device of Claim 1 in its entirety. Fujifilm further discloses a device, wherein:
the processor is configured to transmit the viewer-specific status and the main body status to another medical care support device different from the medical care support device (See Fujifilm p. 3 (Boxes 11 & 12) which discloses the system being linked with read management on the departmental system side such that information can be linked when read operations are performed on the departmental system side, i.e. reflecting a status of a specific type of viewer from a specific department, and can further indicate whether there are unread/read reports within the whole hospital or their own department, which further is understood by Examiner to constitute the medical care support platform, and associated statuses therein, being present on the screens/devices found in one or more departments in a whole hospital).
Claim 15 –
Regarding Claim 15, Fujifilm, New Medicine in Japan, and Canon disclose the medical care support device of Claim 1 in its entirety. Fujifilm further discloses a device, wherein:
the processor is configured to transmit the display screen to another medical care support device different from the medical care support device (See Fujifilm p. 3 (Boxes 11 & 12) which discloses the system being linked with read management on the departmental system side such that information can be linked when read operations are performed on the departmental system side, i.e. reflecting a status of a specific type of viewer from a specific department, and can further indicate whether there are unread/read reports within the whole hospital or their own department, which further is understood by Examiner to constitute the medical care support platform being present on the screens/devices, and associated screens containing the one or more statuses, found in one or more departments in a whole hospital).
Claim 16 –
Regarding Claim 16, Fujifilm discloses a medical care support method comprising:
storing a main body status table and a viewer-specific status table in a memory (See Fujifilm p. 1 (Box 1) which discloses an integrated medical care support platform for use by medical systems within a hospital; See Figure “Image of unread message function” in Fujifilm p. 2 (Box 10) which also displays computer implementation of the support platform which is understood to include a processor and memory; See Fujifilm p. 1 (Box 3), Figure “Image of unread icon on clinical flow (list of multiple patients)” (Box 6) and Fig. “Image of unread icon on timeline (list by patient)” on Fujifilm p. 2 (Box 8) which disclose “the image diagnostic report read management solution newly added with this version upgrade is a function that supports the management of read and unread report” such as by displaying an unread icon, indicating whether that portion has been read or unread, in the clinical flow/timeline report of one or more patients, i.e. medical care processes of the one or more patients, thereby constituting a main body status and associated main body status table; See Fujifilm p. 3 (Boxes 11 & 12) which discloses the system being linked with read management on the departmental system side such that information can be linked when read operations are performed on the departmental system side, i.e. updating the status of a specific type of viewer from one or more viewers from a specific department, and administrators can further manage read reports with a list of whether there are unread reports within the hospital or their own department, thereby understood to constitute a viewer-specific status and associated viewer-specific status table);
generating a display screen for displaying patient identification information and a medical care process in association with each other for each of a plurality of patients (See Fujifilm p. 1 (Box 2) which discloses “CITA Clinical Finder making it possible to quickly grasp patient medical information and the overall picture of the medical process” such as by displaying a list of patient medical information such as test images and findings reports, i.e. medical care process, and displays any patient in a list and displays information such as patient attributes, presence of medical documents/consent forms, and test implementation status; See Fujifilm p. 2 (Box 4) which discloses managing individual patients and/or multiple patients at once See Figure “Image of unread message function” on Fujifilm p. 2 (Box 10) which also displays computer implementation (screen) of the support platform);
displaying, on the display screen, a status of the medical care process being unread or read and according to a main body status recording in the main body status table for each of the plurality of patients (See Fujifilm p. 1 (Box 3), Figure “Image of unread icon on clinical flow (list of multiple patients)” (Box 6), and Fig. “Image of unread icon on timeline (list by patient)” on Fujifilm p. 2 (Box 8) which disclose “the image diagnostic report read management solution newly added with this version upgrade is a function that supports the management of read and unread report” such as by displaying an unread icon, indicating whether that portion has been read or unread, in the clinical flow/timeline report of one or more patients, i.e. medical care processes of the one or more patients), wherein the main body status includes information indicating the medical care process being unread or read (See Fujifilm p. 1 (Box 3), Figure “Image of unread icon on clinical flow (list of multiple patients)” (Box 6), and Fig. “Image of unread icon on timeline (list by patient)” on Fujifilm p. 2 (Box 8) which disclose “the image diagnostic report read management solution newly added with this version upgrade is a function that supports the management of read and unread report” such as by displaying an unread icon, indicating whether that portion has been read or unread, in the clinical flow/timeline report of one or more patients, i.e. medical care processes of the one or more patients, thereby constituting a main body status and associated main body status table);
managing a viewer-specific status separately from the main body status according to the viewer-specific status table (See Fujifilm p. 1 (Box 3) and Figure “Image of unread icon on clinical flow (list of multiple patients)” on Fujifilm p. 2 (Box 6) which discloses “the image diagnostic report read management solution newly added with this version upgrade is a function that supports the management of read and unread report” such as by displaying an unread icon in the clinical flow, constituting displaying a viewer-specific status, i.e. unread icon indicating the medical care process is unread or read, and the main body status, i.e. progress or step in a clinical workflow), wherein
the viewer-specific status includes information indicating a viewing status of each of a plurality of viewers with respect to the medical care process, wherein the plurality of viewers includes a first viewer and a second viewer and the viewer-specific status of the first viewer and the second viewer are respectively recorded in the viewer-specific status table (See Fujifilm p. 3 (Box 11) which discloses the system being linked with read management on the departmental system side such that information can be linked when read operations are performed on the departmental system side, i.e. updating the status of a specific type of viewer from one or more viewers from a specific department, and administrators can further manage read reports with a list of whether there are unread reports within the hospital or their own department, thereby understood to constitute a viewer-specific status and associated viewer-specific status table), and wherein the read target person is classified into a management target person who is a specific viewer and a non-management target person other than the management target person (See Fujifilm p. 1 (Box 3) and Figure “Image of unread icon on clinical flow (list of multiple patients)” on Fujifilm p. 2 (Box 6) which discloses “the image diagnostic report read management solution newly added with this version upgrade is a function that supports the management of read and unread report” such as by displaying an unread icon in the clinical flow, constituting displaying a viewer-specific status, i.e. unread icon indicating the medical care process is unread or read, and the main body status, i.e. progress or step in a clinical workflow, and once the unread content is viewed, removing, i.e. changing, the statuses therein; See Fujifilm p. 3 (Box 11) which discloses the system being linked with read management on the departmental system side such that information can be linked when read operations are performed on the departmental system side, i.e. reflecting a status of a specific type of viewer from a specific department, and can further indicate whether there are unread reports within the whole hospital or their own department; See Fujifilm p. 3 (Box 12) which discloses administrators who manage read reports, such as management-level doctors, and implying the converse or non-management-level doctors);
monitoring and updating the viewer-specific status table by acquiring the status of the medical care process from each of the first and second viewers in real time through a network See Fujifilm p. 3 (Box 11) which discloses the system being linked with read management on the departmental system side such that information can be linked when read operations are performed on the departmental system side, i.e. updating the status of the medical care process a specific viewer; disclose “the image diagnostic report read management solution newly added with this version upgrade is a function that supports the management of read and unread report” such as by displaying an unread icon, indicating whether that portion has been read or unread, in the clinical flow/timeline report of one or more patients, i.e. medical care processes of the one or more patients; therefore, while Fujifilm generally discloses aspects regarding icons/statuses changing from one status to another, Fujifilm does not explicitly state the functionality of “updating” being performed, such as by a computer or other user via the computer per se);
updating the main body status of the medical care process in the main body status table to read when the viewer-specific status of the management target person is changed from unread to read (See Fujifilm p. 1 (Box 3) and Figure “Image of unread icon on clinical flow (list of multiple patients)” (Box 6) and Fig. “Image of unread icon on timeline (list by patient)” on Fujifilm p. 2 (Box 8) which discloses “the image diagnostic report read management solution newly added with this version upgrade is a function that supports the management of read and unread report” such as by displaying an unread icon, indicating whether that portion has been read or unread, in the clinical flow/timeline report of one or more patients, i.e. medical care processes of the one or more patients, thereby constituting a main body status and associated main body status table and updating said status based on a specific viewer or doctor viewing that portion of the clinical flow/timeline report; See Fujifilm p. 1 (Box 3) and Figure “Image of unread icon on clinical flow (list of multiple patients)” (Box 6) on Fujifilm p. 2 which discloses “the image diagnostic report read management solution newly added with this version upgrade is a function that supports the management of read and unread report” such as by displaying an unread icon in the clinical flow, constituting displaying a viewer-specific status, i.e. unread icon indicating the medical care process is unread or read, and the main body status, i.e. progress or step in a clinical workflow; therefore, while Fujifilm generally discloses aspects regarding icons/statuses changing from one status to another, Fujifilm does not explicitly state the functionality of “updating” being performed, such as by a computer or other user via the computer per se);
updating the status of the medical care process being displayed on the display screen according to the updated main body status of the medical care process in the main body status table which is updated by referring to the viewer-specific status of the first viewer in the viewer-specific status table (See Fujifilm p. 1 (Box 3) and Figure “Image of unread icon on clinical flow (list of multiple patients)” (Box 6) and Fig. “Image of unread icon on timeline (list by patient)” on Fujifilm p. 2 (Box 8) which disclose “the image diagnostic report read management solution newly added with this version upgrade is a function that supports the management of read and unread report” such as by displaying an unread icon, indicating whether that portion has been read or unread, in the clinical flow/timeline report of one or more patients, i.e. medical care processes of the one or more patients, thereby constituting a main body status and associated main body status table and updating said status based on a specific viewer or doctor viewing that a portion of the clinical flow/timeline report; See Fujifilm p. 3 which discloses the system being linked with read management on the departmental system side such that information can be linked when read operations are performed on the departmental system side, i.e. updating the status of the medical care process a specific viewer; disclose “the image diagnostic report read management solution newly added with this version upgrade is a function that supports the management of read and unread report” such as by displaying an unread icon, indicating whether that portion has been read or unread, in the clinical flow/timeline report of one or more patients, i.e. medical care processes of the one or more patients; therefore, while Fujifilm generally discloses aspects regarding icons/statuses changing from one status to another, Fujifilm does not explicitly state the functionality of “updating” being performed, such as by a computer or other user via the computer per se).
While Fujifilm generally discusses a system, wherein main body status and viewer-specific statuses are updated when an intended viewer reads a portion of the clinical flow/timeline report, Fujifilm does not disclose an actual updating of the read status from unread upon being read (and instead simply mentions an icon indicating either scenario, and therefore could be understood to constitute functionality for changing said icon, but this is not explicitly mentioned). Furthermore, Fujifilm is relatively silent on categorizing multiple viewers/users of the system, such as a first viewer classified into a read target person and a second viewer classified into a non-read target person, and the first viewer is designated to be more relevant with respect to the second viewer for viewing the medical care process, wherein the read target person is classified into a management target person who is a specific viewer and a non-management target person other than the management target person. Additionally, Fujifilm is relatively silent on not updating the main body status of the medical care process as read when the viewing status of the first viewer has not changed to read even when the viewing status of the second viewer has changed to read. Fujifilm is also relatively silent on approving a change to the management target person before the change, and change, in a case where the change is approved, the management target person and/or in a case where the change is not approved, the viewer whose change is not approved is set as the non-management target person.
However, “New Medicine in Japan” discloses a first viewer classified into a read target person (See “New Medicine in Japan” Box 2 which discloses a first possible viewer, such as an medical instructor of the department) and a second viewer classified into a non-read target person (See “New Medicine in Japan” Box 2 which discloses a second possible viewer, such as a resident), and the first viewer is designated to be more relevant with respect to the second viewer for viewing the medical care process (See “New Medicine in Japan” Box 2 which discloses that the system prevents residents from marking diagnostic imaging reports as read and has the medical instructor of the department in which the resident is training to confirm and mark as read the diagnostic imaging report, because it is undesirable for a resident who is an ordering physician to decide whether additional examination/treatment is necessary on his or her own, i.e. the medical instructor is designated to be more relevant than the resident), wherein the read target person is classified into a management target person who is a specific viewer and a non-management target person other than the management target person (See “New Medicine in Japan” Box 2 which discloses a first possible viewer, such as an medical instructor of the department, i.e. management target person) not updating the main body status of the medical care process in the main body status table to read when the viewing status of the management target person has not changed to read even when the viewing status of the second viewer has changed to read (See “New Medicine in Japan” (Box 2) which discloses it is undesirable for a resident who is an ordering physician to decide whether additional examination/treatment is necessary on his or her own, prohibits residents from marking diagnostic imaging reports as read, i.e. not updating the statuses, and, for imaging ordered by a resident, instead has the medical instructor of the department in which the resident is training, i.e. associated with the resident, confirm and mark as read the diagnostic imaging report, thereby constituting not updating the main body status when the resident views the imaging, and instead only updating when the medical instructor confirm and marks as read the diagnostic imaging report), change settings of the plurality of viewers and types of the plurality of viewers (See “New Medicine in Japan” (Box 2) which discloses it is undesirable for a resident who is an ordering physician to decide whether additional examination/treatment is necessary on his or her own, prohibits residents from marking diagnostic imaging reports as read, i.e. not updating the statuses, and, for imaging ordered by a resident, instead has the medical instructor of the department in which the resident is training, i.e. associated with the resident, confirm and mark as read the diagnostic imaging report, thereby constituting changing settings depending on the viewers and type thereof) when a change to the management target person is not approved, setting the viewer as the non-management target person (this limitation is understood to represent a contingent limitation, see MPEP 2111.04(II), and therefore under broadest reasonable interpretation, the second condition of “in a case where the change is not approved” does not have to be met, because the system only requires one of the conditions (i.e. either the change is approved OR the change is not approved) to be met/achieved to move forward in operation and these two instances are mutually exclusive, therefore because “New Medicine in Japan” (Box 2) generally describes a technical means, i.e. structure for performing the functions recited, that because it is undesirable for a resident who is an ordering physician to decide whether additional examination/treatment is necessary on his or her own, prohibits residents from marking diagnostic imaging reports as read and, for imaging ordered by a resident, has the medical instructor of the department in which the resident is training confirm and mark as read the diagnostic imaging report, i.e. the system approves the management target person before the change or confirming and marking the report, this limitation is considered met since the condition of “in a case where the change is not approved” is not required to actually ever occur under BRI).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the disclosure of Fujifilm with the teachings of “New Medicine in Japan” because some entities in a medical facility may not be of necessary skill or training to make decisions or edits on certain medical cases and would require assistance from a formal medical instructor or physician (See “New Medicine in Japan” Box 2). Additionally, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the disclosure of Fujifilm with the teachings of “New Medicine in Japan” regarding approving or not approving a change to the management target person, because some entities in a medical facility may not be of necessary skill or training to make decisions or edits on certain medical cases and would require assistance from a formal medical instructor or physician and confirming or approving the physician or target person before said change to the document occurs allows confirmation of appropriate skill level to make such as change and/or to negate a change that is not approved (See “New Medicine in Japan” Box 1).
While Fujifilm and New Medicine in Japan generally disclose, main body status and viewer-specific statuses are updated when an intended viewer reads a portion of the clinical flow/timeline report, Fujifilm and New Medicine in Japan do not explicitly disclose an “updating” functionality, e.g. command, per se, of the read status from unread to read upon being read by a desired entity, such as by a computer or other user via the computer. Furthermore, Fujifilm and New Medicine in Japan are relatively silent on approving, in a case where the management target person is changed, a change to the management target person before the change, and change, in a case where the change is approved, the management target person.
However, Canon discloses a system and program function for read-management, such as updating of the read status from unread to read upon being read by a desired entity (See Canon Par [0045]-[0052] & [0054]-[0056] which discloses requesting a confirmation by superimposing a confirmation image for making the report read in part of the report, such that when the user presses the confirmation image, the read management function associates information indicating the read has been made with the report, and on a generated list of reports, displays/indicates that specific test of a plurality of tests in the list has been read and can be narrowed by department, requesting doctor, or most qualified/relevant doctor). Canon also discloses when a change to the management target person is approved, changing a viewer to the management target person (See Canon Par [0049] which discloses when the login by the personal ID is confirmed, the read management function marks the report as read if the user who pressed the confirmation image is a doctor who belongs to the same department, i.e. as the requesting doctor or the requesting doctor). Additionally, even though it is understood by Examiner that New Medicine in Japan entirely discloses designating viewers that are more or less relevant for a study, and/or more or less qualified, it should be noted that Canon also further discloses instances of assigning personnel as less relevant or more relevant and if a less relevant or qualified doctor tries to mark a report as, leaving a report status as unread (See Canon Par [0049] which discloses when the login by the personal ID is confirmed, the read management function marks the report as read if the user who pressed the confirmation image is a doctor who belongs to the same department as the requesting doctor or the requesting doctor, and if it is a user other than a doctor of the same department as the requesting doctor, leave it unread).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the disclosure of Fujifilm and New Medicine in Japan, which already discloses main body status and viewer-specific statuses being updated when an intended viewer reads a portion of the clinical flow/timeline report to further include a system and program function for read-management, such as updating of the read status from unread to read upon being read by a desired entity and approving, in a case where the management target person is changed, a change to the management target person before the change, and change, in a case where the change is approved, the management target person, as disclosed by Canon, because this allows for certain predetermined conditions, such as the confirming doctor to be in the same department as the requesting doctor, to be satisfied, allowing for more reliable read-management (See Canon Par [0047]-[0050]).
Claim 17 –
Regarding Claim 17, Fujifilm discloses a non-transitory computer readable recording medium storing a medical care support program, the medical care support program causing a computer to execute (See Fujifilm p. 1 which discloses an integrated medical care support platform for use by medical systems within a hospital; See Figure “Image of unread message function” on Fujifilm p. 2 which also displays computer implementation of the support platform):
storing a main body status table and a viewer-specific status table in a memory (See Fujifilm p. 1 (Box 1) which discloses an integrated medical care support platform for use by medical systems within a hospital; See Figure “Image of unread message function” in Fujifilm p. 2 (Box 10) which also displays computer implementation of the support platform which is understood to include a processor and memory; See Fujifilm p. 1 (Box 3), Figure “Image of unread icon on clinical flow (list of multiple patients)” (Box 6) and Fig. “Image of unread icon on timeline (list by patient)” on Fujifilm p. 2 (Box 8) which disclose “the image diagnostic report read management solution newly added with this version upgrade is a function that supports the management of read and unread report” such as by displaying an unread icon, indicating whether that portion has been read or unread, in the clinical flow/timeline report of one or more patients, i.e. medical care processes of the one or more patients, thereby constituting a main body status and associated main body status table; See Fujifilm p. 3 (Boxes 11 & 12) which discloses the system being linked with read management on the departmental system side such that information can be linked when read operations are performed on the departmental system side, i.e. updating the status of a specific type of viewer from one or more viewers from a specific department, and administrators can further manage read reports with a list of whether there are unread reports within the hospital or their own department, thereby understood to constitute a viewer-specific status and associated viewer-specific status table);
generating a display screen for displaying patient identification information and a medical care process in association with each other for each of a plurality of patients (See Fujifilm p. 1 (Box 2) which discloses “CITA Clinical Finder making it possible to quickly grasp patient medical information and the overall picture of the medical process” such as by displaying a list of patient medical information such as test images and findings reports, i.e. medical care process, and displays any patient in a list and displays information such as patient attributes, presence of medical documents/consent forms, and test implementation status; See Fujifilm p. 2 (Box 4) which discloses managing individual patients and/or multiple patients at once);
displaying, on the display screen, a status of the medical care process being unread or read according to a main body status recorded in the main body status table according to the main body status table for each of the plurality of patients (See Fujifilm p. 1 (Box 3), Figure “Image of unread icon on clinical flow (list of multiple patients)” (Box 6) and Fig. “Image of unread icon on timeline (list by patient)” on Fujifilm p. 2 (Box 8) which disclose “the image diagnostic report read management solution newly added with this version upgrade is a function that supports the management of read and unread report” such as by displaying an unread icon, indicating whether that portion has been read or unread, in the clinical flow/timeline report of one or more patients, i.e. medical care processes of the one or more patients), wherein the main body status includes information indicating the medical care process being unread or read (See Fujifilm p. 1 (Box 3), Figure “Image of unread icon on clinical flow (list of multiple patients)” (Box 6) and Fig. “Image of unread icon on timeline (list by patient)” on Fujifilm p. 2 (Box 8) which disclose “the image diagnostic report read management solution newly added with this version upgrade is a function that supports the management of read and unread report” such as by displaying an unread icon, indicating whether that portion has been read or unread, in the clinical flow/timeline report of one or more patients, i.e. medical care processes of the one or more patients, thereby constituting a main body status and associated main body status table);
managing a viewer-specific status separately from the main body status according to the viewer-specific status table (See Fujifilm p. 1 (Box 3) and Figure “Image of unread icon on clinical flow (list of multiple patients)” on Fujifilm p. 2 (Box 6) which discloses “the image diagnostic report read management solution newly added with this version upgrade is a function that supports the management of read and unread report” such as by displaying an unread icon in the clinical flow, constituting displaying a viewer-specific status, i.e. unread icon indicating the medical care process is unread or read, and the main body status, i.e. progress or step in a clinical workflow), wherein
the viewer-specific status includes information indicating a viewing status of each of a plurality of viewers with respect to the medical care process, wherein the plurality of viewers includes a first viewer classified into a read target person and a second viewer classified into a non-read target person, and the first viewer is designated to be more relevant with respect to the second viewer for viewing the medical care process, and the viewer-specific status of the first viewer and the second viewer are respectively recorded in the viewer-specific status table (See Fujifilm p. 3 (Box 11) which discloses the system being linked with read management on the departmental system side such that information can be linked when read operations are performed on the departmental system side, i.e. updating the status of a specific type of viewer from one or more viewers from a specific department, and administrators can further manage read reports with a list of whether there are unread reports within the hospital or their own department, thereby understood to constitute a viewer-specific status and associated viewer-specific status table), and wherein the read target person is classified into a management target person who is a specific viewer and a non-management target person other than the management target person (See Fujifilm p. 1 (Box 3) and Figure “Image of unread icon on clinical flow (list of multiple patients)” on Fujifilm p. 2 (Box 6) which discloses “the image diagnostic report read management solution newly added with this version upgrade is a function that supports the management of read and unread report” such as by displaying an unread icon in the clinical flow, constituting displaying a viewer-specific status, i.e. unread icon indicating the medical care process is unread or read, and the main body status, i.e. progress or step in a clinical workflow, and once the unread content is viewed, removing, i.e. changing, the statuses therein; See Fujifilm p. 3 (Box 11) which discloses the system being linked with read management on the departmental system side such that information can be linked when read operations are performed on the departmental system side, i.e. reflecting a status of a specific type of viewer from a specific department, and can further indicate whether there are unread reports within the whole hospital or their own department; See Fujifilm p. 3 (Box 12) which discloses administrators who manage read reports, such as management-level doctors, and implying the converse or non-management-level doctors);
monitoring and updating the viewer-specific status by acquiring the status of the medical care process from each of the first and second viewers in real time through a network (See Fujifilm p. 3 (Box 11) which discloses the system being linked with read management on the departmental system side such that information can be linked when read operations are performed on the departmental system side, i.e. updating the status of the medical care process a specific viewer; disclose “the image diagnostic report read management solution newly added with this version upgrade is a function that supports the management of read and unread report” such as by displaying an unread icon, indicating whether that portion has been read or unread, in the clinical flow/timeline report of one or more patients, i.e. medical care processes of the one or more patients);
updating the main body status of the medical care process in the main body status table to read when the viewer-specific status of the management target person is changed from unread to read (See Fujifilm p. 1 (Box 3) and Figure “Image of unread icon on clinical flow (list of multiple patients)” (Box 6) and Fig. “Image of unread icon on timeline (list by patient)” on Fujifilm p. 2 (Box 8) which discloses “the image diagnostic report read management solution newly added with this version upgrade is a function that supports the management of read and unread report” such as by displaying an unread icon, indicating whether that portion has been read or unread, in the clinical flow/timeline report of one or more patients, i.e. medical care processes of the one or more patients, thereby constituting a main body status and associated main body status table and updating said status based on a specific viewer or doctor viewing that portion of the clinical flow/timeline report; See Fujifilm p. 1 (Box 3) and Figure “Image of unread icon on clinical flow (list of multiple patients)” (Box 6) on Fujifilm p. 2 which discloses “the image diagnostic report read management solution newly added with this version upgrade is a function that supports the management of read and unread report” such as by displaying an unread icon in the clinical flow, constituting displaying a viewer-specific status, i.e. unread icon indicating the medical care process is unread or read, and the main body status, i.e. progress or step in a clinical workflow, and under broadest reasonable interpretation without specifying “in a selectable manner on the display screen”, these statuses could very well be selectable on the display screen since they are displayed);
updating the status of the medical care process being displayed on the display screen according to the updated main body status of the medical care process in the main body status table which is updated by referring to the viewer-specific status of the first viewer in the viewer-specific status table (See Fujifilm p. 1 (Box 3) and Figure “Image of unread icon on clinical flow (list of multiple patients)” (Box 6) and Fig. “Image of unread icon on timeline (list by patient)” on Fujifilm p. 2 (Box 8) which disclose “the image diagnostic report read management solution newly added with this version upgrade is a function that supports the management of read and unread report” such as by displaying an unread icon, indicating whether that portion has been read or unread, in the clinical flow/timeline report of one or more patients, i.e. medical care processes of the one or more patients, thereby constituting a main body status and associated main body status table and updating said status based on a specific viewer or doctor viewing that a portion of the clinical flow/timeline report; See Fujifilm p. 3 which discloses the system being linked with read management on the departmental system side such that information can be linked when read operations are performed on the departmental system side, i.e. updating the status of the medical care process a specific viewer; disclose “the image diagnostic report read management solution newly added with this version upgrade is a function that supports the management of read and unread report” such as by displaying an unread icon, indicating whether that portion has been read or unread, in the clinical flow/timeline report of one or more patients, i.e. medical care processes of the one or more patients);
change settings of the plurality of viewers and types of the plurality of viewers (See Fujifilm p. 3 (Box 11) which discloses the system being linked with read management on the departmental system side such that information can be linked when read operations are performed on the departmental system side, i.e. reflecting a status of a specific type of viewer from a specific department, and can further indicate whether there are unread/read reports within the whole hospital or their own department, which is understood by Examiner to constitute a changing a type of viewer and changing settings/operations based on departmental factors/specifics such as if the interface is being viewed on a department’s own device, then the department’s people/entities are prepopulated as implied by the disclosed aspects on p. 3).
While Fujifilm generally discusses a system, wherein main body status and viewer-specific statuses are updated when an intended viewer reads a portion of the clinical flow/timeline report, Fujifilm does not disclose an actual updating of the read status from unread upon being read (and instead simply mentions an icon indicating either scenario, and therefore could be understood to constitute functionality for changing said icon, but this is not explicitly mentioned). Furthermore, Fujifilm is relatively silent on categorizing multiple viewers/users of the system, such as a first viewer classified into a read target person and a second viewer classified into a non-read target person, and the first viewer is designated to be more relevant with respect to the second viewer for viewing the medical care process, wherein the read target person is classified into a management target person who is a specific viewer and a non-management target person other than the management target person. Additionally, Fujifilm is relatively silent on not updating the main body status of the medical care process as read when the viewing status of the first viewer has not changed to read even when the viewing status of the second viewer has changed to read. Fujifilm is also relatively silent on approving a change to the management target person before the change, and change, in a case where the change is approved, the management target person and/or in a case where the change is not approved, the viewer whose change is not approved is set as the non-management target person.
However, “New Medicine in Japan” discloses a first viewer classified into a read target person (See “New Medicine in Japan” Box 2 which discloses a first possible viewer, such as an medical instructor of the department) and a second viewer classified into a non-read target person (See “New Medicine in Japan” Box 2 which discloses a second possible viewer, such as a resident), and the first viewer is designated to be more relevant with respect to the second viewer for viewing the medical care process (See “New Medicine in Japan” Box 2 which discloses that the system prevents residents from marking diagnostic imaging reports as read and has the medical instructor of the department in which the resident is training to confirm and mark as read the diagnostic imaging report, because it is undesirable for a resident who is an ordering physician to decide whether additional examination/treatment is necessary on his or her own, i.e. the medical instructor is designated to be more relevant than the resident), wherein the read target person is classified into a management target person who is a specific viewer and a non-management target person other than the management target person (See “New Medicine in Japan” Box 2 which discloses a first possible viewer, such as an medical instructor of the department, i.e. management target person) not updating the main body status of the medical care process in the main body status table to read when the viewing status of the management target person has not changed to read even when the viewing status of the second viewer has changed to read (See “New Medicine in Japan” (Box 2) which discloses it is undesirable for a resident who is an ordering physician to decide whether additional examination/treatment is necessary on his or her own, prohibits residents from marking diagnostic imaging reports as read, i.e. not updating the statuses, and, for imaging ordered by a resident, instead has the medical instructor of the department in which the resident is training, i.e. associated with the resident, confirm and mark as read the diagnostic imaging report, thereby constituting not updating the main body status when the resident views the imaging, and instead only updating when the medical instructor confirm and marks as read the diagnostic imaging report), change settings of the plurality of viewers and types of the plurality of viewers (See “New Medicine in Japan” (Box 2) which discloses it is undesirable for a resident who is an ordering physician to decide whether additional examination/treatment is necessary on his or her own, prohibits residents from marking diagnostic imaging reports as read, i.e. not updating the statuses, and, for imaging ordered by a resident, instead has the medical instructor of the department in which the resident is training, i.e. associated with the resident, confirm and mark as read the diagnostic imaging report, thereby constituting changing settings depending on the viewers and type thereof) when a change to the management target person is not approved, setting the viewer as the non-management target person (this limitation is understood to represent a contingent limitation, see MPEP 2111.04(II), and therefore under broadest reasonable interpretation, the second condition of “in a case where the change is not approved” does not have to be met, because the system only requires one of the conditions (i.e. either the change is approved OR the change is not approved) to be met/achieved to move forward in operation and these two instances are mutually exclusive, therefore because “New Medicine in Japan” (Box 2) generally describes a technical means, i.e. structure for performing the functions recited, that because it is undesirable for a resident who is an ordering physician to decide whether additional examination/treatment is necessary on his or her own, prohibits residents from marking diagnostic imaging reports as read and, for imaging ordered by a resident, has the medical instructor of the department in which the resident is training confirm and mark as read the diagnostic imaging report, i.e. the system approves the management target person before the change or confirming and marking the report, this limitation is considered met since the condition of “in a case where the change is not approved” is not required to actually ever occur under BRI).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the disclosure of Fujifilm with the teachings of “New Medicine in Japan” because some entities in a medical facility may not be of necessary skill or training to make decisions or edits on certain medical cases and would require assistance from a formal medical instructor or physician (See “New Medicine in Japan” Box 2). Additionally, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the disclosure of Fujifilm with the teachings of “New Medicine in Japan” regarding approving or not approving a change to the management target person, because some entities in a medical facility may not be of necessary skill or training to make decisions or edits on certain medical cases and would require assistance from a formal medical instructor or physician and confirming or approving the physician or target person before said change to the document occurs allows confirmation of appropriate skill level to make such as change and/or to negate a change that is not approved (See “New Medicine in Japan” Box 1).
While Fujifilm and New Medicine in Japan generally disclose, main body status and viewer-specific statuses are updated when an intended viewer reads a portion of the clinical flow/timeline report, Fujifilm and New Medicine in Japan do not explicitly disclose an “updating” functionality, e.g. command, per se, of the read status from unread to read upon being read by a desired entity, such as by a computer or other user via the computer. Furthermore, Fujifilm and New Medicine in Japan are relatively silent on approving, in a case where the management target person is changed, a change to the management target person before the change, and change, in a case where the change is approved, the management target person.
However, Canon discloses a system and program function for read-management, such as updating of the read status from unread to read upon being read by a desired entity (See Canon Par [0045]-[0052] & [0054]-[0056] which discloses requesting a confirmation by superimposing a confirmation image for making the report read in part of the report, such that when the user presses the confirmation image, the read management function associates information indicating the read has been made with the report, and on a generated list of reports, displays/indicates that specific test of a plurality of tests in the list has been read and can be narrowed by department, requesting doctor, or most qualified/relevant doctor). Canon also discloses when a change to the management target person is approved, changing a viewer to the management target person (See Canon Par [0049] which discloses when the login by the personal ID is confirmed, the read management function marks the report as read if the user who pressed the confirmation image is a doctor who belongs to the same department, i.e. as the requesting doctor or the requesting doctor). Additionally, even though it is understood by Examiner that New Medicine in Japan entirely discloses designating viewers that are more or less relevant for a study, and/or more or less qualified, it should be noted that Canon also further discloses instances of assigning personnel as less relevant or more relevant and if a less relevant or qualified doctor tries to mark a report as, leaving a report status as unread (See Canon Par [0049] which discloses when the login by the personal ID is confirmed, the read management function marks the report as read if the user who pressed the confirmation image is a doctor who belongs to the same department as the requesting doctor or the requesting doctor, and if it is a user other than a doctor of the same department as the requesting doctor, leave it unread).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the disclosure of Fujifilm and New Medicine in Japan, which already discloses main body status and viewer-specific statuses being updated when an intended viewer reads a portion of the clinical flow/timeline report to further include a system and program function for read-management, such as updating of the read status from unread to read upon being read by a desired entity and approving, in a case where the management target person is changed, a change to the management target person before the change, and change, in a case where the change is approved, the management target person, as disclosed by Canon, because this allows for certain predetermined conditions, such as the confirming doctor to be in the same department as the requesting doctor, to be satisfied, allowing for more reliable read-management (See Canon Par [0047]-[0050]).
Claim 18 –
Regarding Claim 18, per Applicant’s remarks on p. 15 of Arguments/Remarks, claim 18 is understood to represent the combination of claims 1, 4, 8, & 13. Fujifilm, “New Medicine in Japan”, and Canon effectively disclose (or disclosed in the case of cancelled claims) the entirety of claims 1, 4, 8, & 13. Therefore, it is understood that Fujifilm, “New Medicine in Japan”, and Canon effectively disclose the entirety of claim 18, but recited for a medical care support device (See Fujifilm p. 1 (Box 1) which discloses an integrated medical care support platform, i.e. medical care support device).
Claim 19 –
Regarding Claim 19, per Applicant’s remarks on p. 15 of Arguments/Remarks, claim 19 is understood to represent the combination of claims 16, 4, 8, & 13. Fujifilm, “New Medicine in Japan”, and Canon effectively disclose (or disclosed in the case of cancelled claims) the entirety of claims 16, 4, 8, & 13. Therefore, it is understood that Fujifilm, “New Medicine in Japan”, and Canon effectively disclose the entirety of claim 19, but recited for a medical care support method (See Fujifilm p. 1 (Box 1) which discloses an integrated medical care support platform for performing a medical care support method).
Claim 20 –
Regarding Claim 20, per Applicant’s remarks on p. 15 of Arguments/Remarks, claim 20 is understood to represent the combination of claims 17, 4, 8, & 13. Fujifilm, “New Medicine in Japan”, and Canon effectively disclose (or disclosed in the case of cancelled claims) the entirety of claims 17, 4, 8, & 13. Therefore, it is understood that Fujifilm, “New Medicine in Japan”, and Canon effectively disclose the entirety of claim 20, but recited for a non-transitory computer-readable recording medium storing a medical care support program (See Fujifilm p. 1 (Box 1) which discloses an integrated medical care support platform for performing a medical care support method, such as via program instructions from a non-transitory computer-readable recording medium storing a medical care support program).
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed 27 May 2025 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive:
Regarding 35 U.S.C. 101 rejections of Claims 1-17, Applicant argues on p. 16 of Arguments/Remarks that the limitation “monitor and update the viewer-specific status by acquiring the status of the medical care process from each of the first and second viewers in real time through a network” is related to how a machine would process data, and should not be directed to a method of organizing human activities. Examiner respectfully disagrees with Applicant’s arguments. While this limitation, as argued by Applicant, may be directed towards “how a machine would process data”, the Alice/Mayo framework uses the established broadest reasonable interpretation of the limitation to determine subject matter eligibility. That is, under BRI, “monitor and update the viewer-specific status by acquiring the status of the medical care process from each of the first and second viewers in real time through a network” can effectively be recited for human or machine processing of data. Therefore, while this may be intended for computerized processes, these efforts can easily be performed via human efforts or by a human using a computer as a generic tool. As such, currently pending claims 1-3, 5-7, & 11-20 remain rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101.
Regarding 35 U.S.C. 101 rejections of Claims 1-17, Applicant argues on p. 16-18 of Arguments/Remarks that the newly amended claims solve a technical problem where faulty information may be used to update a job in a queue as finished. That is, the claimed invention includes an additional “viewer-specific status” in the memory, so that the viewer status is recorded separately from the main body status management and the main body status that manages the job only updates when a highly relevant viewer has seen the job, and therefore oversight may be reduced. Examiner respectfully disagrees with Applicant’s arguments. The newly amended limitations merely further the abstraction at-hand, versus a technical improvement or practical application. While Applicant argues that the independent claims improve conventional ways of tracking the viewing status in a viewer tracking system, and reduce oversight by the recited limitations, this still seems to read as an improvement to an abstraction versus an improvement to the computer technology. That is, reducing oversight of a performed job or imaging workflows in a viewer tracking system still relates to the abstract idea of performing said job or imaging workflow versus improving the computer technology itself that the abstract idea is performed on. While Applicant argues against the limitations found in the independent claims representing a simple design choice, utilizing two independent interfaces that display an associated main body status on one display/interface and an associated viewer-specific status table on the other reduces oversights does not seem to add additional elements or features that amount to a technological improvement or practical application and instead seems as mere optimization within prior art conditions that have already been disclosed in prior art systems or through routine experimentation. Therefore, currently pending claims 1-3, 5-7, & 11-20 are determined to still be directed towards a judicial exception, and remain rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101.
Regarding 35 U.S.C. 103 rejections of Claims 1-17, Applicant generally argues on p. 18-20 of Arguments/Remarks that the previously cited portions of Fujifilm and “New Medicine in Japan” do not fully disclose the newly amended limitations found in the independent claims in their entirety. Applicant further argues that because previously cited portions of Fujifilm and “New Medicine in Japan” fail to disclose each and every newly amended limitation found in the independent claims, and therefore independent claims 1 & 16-20 and claims dependent therefrom (claims 2-15) overcome previous 35 U.S.C. 103 rejections. Examiner agrees with Applicant’s arguments. Therefore, the rejection has been withdrawn. However, upon further consideration, a new ground of rejection is made under 35 U.S.C. 103 over Fujifilm in view of “New Medicine in Japan”, further in view of Canon. This new ground of rejection includes cited portions from previously pending claims 4 & 8-10 that were met by Fujifilm and “New Medicine in Japan” that have now been incorporated into independent claims 1 & 16-20 to fully read on said independent claims 1 & 16-20. Furthermore, Canon is relied upon for approving, in a case where the management target person is changed, a change to the management target person before the change, and change, in a case where the change is approved, the management target person. Therefore, currently pending claims 1-3, 5-7, & 11-20 remain rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103.
Regarding 35 U.S.C. 103 rejections of Claims 1-17, Applicant further argues on p. 18-19 of Arguments/Remarks that previous 35 U.SC. 103 rejections did not contain teachings about “setting or changing a viewer into the non-management target person in a case where the change is not approved”, as required by previously pending claim 10. As such, Applicant argues that because previously pending claim 10 is now incorporated into independent claims 1 & 16-20, that these newly amended independent claims are non-obvious over the cited references. Examiner respectfully disagrees with Applicant’s arguments. While Applicant generally argues that previous 35 U.SC. 103 rejections did not contain teachings about “setting or changing a viewer into the non-management target person in a case where the change is not approved”, this limitation was and is still understood by Examiner to represent a contingent limitation, see MPEP 2111.04(II), and therefore under broadest reasonable interpretation, the second condition of “in a case where the change is not approved” does not have to be met, because the system only requires one of the conditions (i.e. either the change is approved OR the change is not approved) to be met/achieved to move forward in operation and these two instances are mutually exclusive. While the “contingent” nature of this limitation was not explicitly expressed in the previous Office Action, this limitation is indeed met by “New Medicine in Japan”, because “New Medicine in Japan” (Box 1) generally describes a technical means, i.e. structure for performing the functions recited, that because it is undesirable for a resident who is an ordering physician to decide whether additional examination/treatment is necessary on his or her own, prohibits residents from marking diagnostic imaging reports as read and, for imaging ordered by a resident, has the medical instructor of the department in which the resident is training confirm and mark as read the diagnostic imaging report, i.e. the system approves the management target person in a case where the change is approved before the change or confirming and marking the report, this limitation is considered met since the condition of “in a case where the change is not approved” is not required to actually ever occur under BRI. Therefore, currently pending claims 1-3, 5-7, & 11-20 remain rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103.
Regarding 35 U.S.C. 103 rejections of Claims 1-20, Applicant argues on p. 20-22 of Arguments/Remarks that because independent claim 1 is purportedly allowable over the prior art, the 35 U.S.C. 103 rejections of claims 16-17 & 18-20 should be withdrawn because independent claims 16-17 and 18-20, are substantially similar to claim 1 and therefore also purportedly allowable over the prior art. Applicant further argues that dependent claims 2-3, 5-7, & 11-15 which depend from purportedly allowable, independent claim 1 are also purportedly allowable over the prior art by virtue of dependency. Examiner respectfully disagrees with Applicant’s Arguments. As discussed above, independent claims 1, 16-17, & 18-20 and claims dependent therefrom remain rejected in view of a new ground of rejection under 35 U.S.C. 103. Therefore, claims 1-3, 5-7, & 11-20 remain rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure:
Nuggehalli et al. (U.S. Patent Publication No. 2016/0232294) discloses allowing a user to view and approve or reject images such that said approving or rejecting may be based on one or more assigned roles/characterizations, such that said roles or characterizations can be updated over time by an administrator;
Shioe et al. (U.S. Patent Publication No. 2009/0083074) discloses a system for an image interpretation report making terminal, showing a result of the image interpretation, including statuses thereof, such as whether inspection of the item/interpretation has been performed by a requesting doctor;
Leontiev et al. (U.S. Patent Publication No. 2012/0131436) discloses a system for image review and reporting includes providing access to a report including one or more entries associated with image content and general statuses thereof.
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new grounds of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
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/H.R./Examiner, Art Unit 3684
/KENNETH BARTLEY/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3684