Prosecution Insights
Last updated: July 17, 2026
Application No. 18/711,928

TRANSITIONAL CARE METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR CHILDREN WITH LIVER DISEASES, AND STORAGE MEDIUM

Non-Final OA §103
Filed
May 21, 2024
Priority
Nov 23, 2021 — CN 202111397715.1 +1 more
Examiner
LAM, ELIZA ANNE
Art Unit
3681
Tech Center
3600 — Transportation & Electronic Commerce
Assignee
Shenzhen Third People'S Hospital (Shenzhen Institute Of Hepatology)
OA Round
1 (Non-Final)
38%
Grant Probability
At Risk
1-2
OA Rounds
2y 2m
Est. Remaining
69%
With Interview

Examiner Intelligence

Grants only 38% of cases
38%
Career Allowance Rate
211 granted / 554 resolved
-13.9% vs TC avg
Strong +31% interview lift
Without
With
+31.2%
Interview Lift
resolved cases with interview
Typical timeline
4y 4m
Avg Prosecution
27 currently pending
Career history
588
Total Applications
across all art units

Statute-Specific Performance

§101
12.6%
-27.4% vs TC avg
§103
69.6%
+29.6% vs TC avg
§102
11.9%
-28.1% vs TC avg
§112
3.8%
-36.2% vs TC avg
Black line = Tech Center average estimate • Based on career data from 554 resolved cases

Office Action

§103
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 . Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103 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. Claim(s) 1-20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US. Patent 10,593,426 to Amarasingham et al. in view of U.S. Patent 10,373,716 to Vleugels et al. As to claims 1, , Amarasingham discloses a transitional care, comprising the following steps: investigating readiness for hospital discharge of a patient to obtain an investigation result on the readiness for hospital discharge (Amarasingham column 32 lines 51-61); judging whether transitional care is necessary according to the investigation result on the readiness for hospital discharge, and if the transitional care is necessary, performing the transitional care according to the following steps (Amarasingham column 32 lines 51-61): obtaining body weight and height of the patient within a first time period (Amarasingham column 7 lines 49-67; column 4 lines 3-11); photographing the patient within the first time period to obtain a photo of the patient (Amarasingham column 20 lines 1-28); and obtaining a skin color and/or a sclera color of the patient according to the photo (Amarasingham column 20 lines 1-28); issuing a health education propaganda video to the patient and/or a guardian of the patient within a second time period, wherein the video is used for teaching the patient and/or the guardian of the patient to learn health education knowledge (Amarasingham column 28 lines 18-67); and assessing the health education knowledge of the patient and/or the guardian of the patient within a third time period to obtain an assessment result on the health education knowledge (Amarasingham column 28 lines 18-67 see surveys); medical personnel conducting a consultation according to the skin color of the patient and/or the sclera color of the patient, and providing a corresponding care plan (Amarsingham column 9 lines 1-44 and column 20 lines 1-28). However, Amarsingham does not explicitly teach sending the care plan to the patient and/or the guardian of the patient. method for children with liver diseases installing a monitoring device on the patient to recognize food eaten by the patient in real time, and judging whether the food eaten by the patient is edible; and if the food is not edible, the monitoring device sending out reminding information that the food is not edible. Vleugels discloses sending the care plan to the patient and/or the guardian of the patient installing a monitoring device on the patient to recognize food eaten by the patient in real time, and judging whether the food eaten by the patient is edible (Vleugels column 8 lines 4-21; column 20 lines 3-31 and column 21 lines 44-67); and if the food is not edible, the monitoring device sending out reminding information that the food is not edible (Vleugels column 8 lines 4-21; column 20 lines 3-31 and column 21 lines 44-67). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to monitor food intake as in Vleugels in the remote patient monitoring system of Amarsingham to improve patient care by assessing nutritional needs. However, Amarsingham and Vleugels do not explicitly teach that this method is for children with liver diseases. This is an intended use of the claimed invention and does not patentably distinguish from the teachings of Amarsingham and Vleugels. As to claim 2, see the discussion of claim 1, additionally, Amarasingham discloses the method wherein, the investigation on the readiness for hospital discharge comprises: an investigation on discharge preparation (Amarasingham column 32 lines 25-67) As to claim 3, see the discussion of claim 1, additionally, Amarasingham discloses the method wherein, the step of photographing the patient within the first time period to obtain the photo of the patient comprises the following steps: photographing to obtain at least one first image including the skin of the patient within the first time period(Amarasingham column 20 lines 1-28). As to claim 4, see the discussion of claim 3, additionally, Amarasingham discloses the method wherein, the step of obtaining the skin color and/or the sclera color of the patient according to the photo comprises the following steps: processing the first image and/or the second image based on a first preset network model to obtain an image type (Amarasingham column 20 lines 1-28); selecting a second preset network model according to the image type and processing the first image to obtain the skin color of the patient (Amarasingham column 20 lines 1-28); and selecting the second preset network model according to the image type and processing the second image to obtain the sclera color of the patient (Amarasingham column 20 lines 1-28). As to claim 5, see the discussion of claim 1, additionally, Vleugels discloses the method wherein, the step of installing the monitoring device on the patient to recognize the food eaten by the patient in real time and judging whether the food eaten by the patient is edible comprises the following steps: installing the monitoring device on the patient to obtain a video image of the food eaten by the patient in real time (Vleugels column 31 lines 1-67); processing the video image based on a third preset network model to obtain a type of the food eaten by the patient (Vleugels column 31 lines 1-67); and judging whether the food type is edible according to recipe information preset in the monitoring device; if the food type is within the preset recipe information, judging that the food type is edible correspondingly; and if the food type is not within the preset recipe information, judging that the food type is not edible correspondingly (Vleugels column 31 lines 1-67 and column 32 lines 1-10). As to claim 6, see the discussion of claim 1, additionally, Vleugels discloses the method wherein, the method further comprises the following steps: installing the monitoring device on the patient to obtain an amount of exercise of the patient (Vleugels column 21 lines 1-67); and judging whether the amount of exercise exceeds a threshold, and if the amount of exercise exceeds the threshold, the monitoring device sending out reminding information that the amount of exercise exceeds the threshold (Vleugels column 21 lines 1-67). As to claim 7, Amarasingham discloses a transitional cacomprising a server, a monitoring device, a medical terminal and a patient terminal (Amarsingham figure 1); wherein the server is used for investigating readiness for hospital discharge of a patient to obtain an investigation result on the readiness for hospital discharge (Amarasingham column 32 lines 51-61); the server is further used for judging whether transitional care is necessary according to the investigation result on the readiness for hospital discharge (Amarasingham column 32 lines 51-61): the server is further used for obtaining a skin color and/or a sclera color of the patient according to a photo (Amarasingham column 20 lines 1-28); the server is further used for issuing a health education propaganda video to the patient and/or a guardian of the patient within a second time period, wherein the video is used for teaching the patient and/or the guardian of the patient to learn health education knowledge; and assessing the health education knowledge of the patient and/or the guardian of the patient within a third time period to obtain an assessment result on the health education knowledge (Amarasingham column 28 lines 18-67); and the patient terminal is used for obtaining body weight and height of the patient within a first time period, and photographing the patient within the first time period to obtain the photo of the patient; (Amarasingham column 7 lines 49-67; column 4 lines 3-11); and the medical terminal is used for medical personnel to conduct a consultation according to the skin color of the patient and/or the sclera color of the patient (Amarsingham column 9 lines 1-44 and column 20 lines 1-28). However, Amarsingham does not explicitly teach the server is further used for sending a care plan to the patient and/or the guardian of the patient; the monitoring device is used for recognizing food eaten by the patient in real time, judging whether the food eaten by the patient is edible, and sending out reminding information that the food is not edible if the food is not edible; the monitoring device is further used for obtaining an amount of exercise of the patient, judging whether the amount of exercise exceeds a threshold, and sending out reminding information that the amount of exercise exceeds the threshold if the amount of exercise exceeds the threshold; Vleugels discloses the server is further used for sending a care plan to the patient and/or the guardian of the patient (Vleugels column 8 lines 4-21; column 20 lines 3-31 and column 21 lines 44-67); the monitoring device is used for recognizing food eaten by the patient in real time, judging whether the food eaten by the patient is edible, and sending out reminding information that the food is not edible if the food is not edible (Vleugels column 8 lines 4-21; column 20 lines 3-31 and column 21 lines 44-67); the monitoring device is further used for obtaining an amount of exercise of the patient, judging whether the amount of exercise exceeds a threshold, and sending out reminding information that the amount of exercise exceeds the threshold if the amount of exercise exceeds the threshold (Vleugels column 21 lines 1-67); It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to monitor food intake as in Vleugels in the remote patient monitoring system of Amarsingham to improve patient care by assessing nutritional needs. However, Amarsingham and Vleugels do not explicitly teach that this method is for children with liver diseases. This is an intended use of the claimed invention and does not patentably distinguish from the teachings of Amarsingham and Vleugels. As to claim 8, see the discussion of claim 1, additionally, Amarsingham discloses the system wherein, the server comprises: a patient investigation module for investigating readiness for hospital discharge of a patient to obtain an investigation result on the readiness for hospital discharge (Amarasingham column 32 lines 51-61): a care judgment module for judging whether transitional care is necessary according to the investigation result on the readiness for hospital discharge (Amarasingham column 32 lines 51-61): a color obtaining module for obtaining a skin color and/or a sclera color of the patient according to a photo (Amarasingham column 20 lines 1-28); a training assessment module for issuing a health education propaganda video to the patient and/or a guardian of the patient within a second time period, wherein the video is used for teaching the patient and/or the guardian of the patient to learn health education knowledge (Amarasingham column 28 lines 18-67); and assessing the health education knowledge of the patient and/or the guardian of the patient within a third time period to obtain an assessment result on the health education knowledge (Amarasingham column 28 lines 18-67); and However, Amarsingham does not explicitly teach a plan sending module for sending a care plan to the patient and/or the guardian of the patient. Vleugels discloses sending module for sending a care plan to the patient and/or the guardian of the patient (Vleugels column 8 lines 4-21; column 20 lines 3-31 and column 21 lines 44-67). As to claim 9, see the discussion of claim 7, additionally, Vleugels discloses the method wherein, the monitoring device comprises: a food judgment module for recognizing food eaten by the patient in real time, judging whether the food eaten by the patient is edible, and sending out reminding information that the food is not edible if the food is not edible (Vleugels column 31 lines 1-67); and and a judgment module on an amount of exercise for obtaining an amount of exercise of the patient and judging whether the amount of exercise exceeds a threshold, wherein the monitoring device sends out reminding information that the amount of exercise exceeds the threshold if the amount of exercise exceeds the threshold (Vleugels column 31 lines 1-67 and column 32 lines 1-10). As to claim 10, Shengjing Hospital of China Medical University discloses A computer-readable storage medium, on which a computer program is stored, wherein, the computer program is executed by a processor to implement the transitional care method for children with liver diseases according claim 1. As to claims 11-15, see the discussion of claims 2-6, Amarasingham and Vleugels disclose a computer-readable storage medium (Amarasingham column 6 lines 39-58 and Vleugels column 49 lines 1-24) Conclusion The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. CN 112802595A to Shengjing Hospital of China Medical University. U.S. Patent Application Publication 20090319298 to Weiss et al. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Eliza Lam whose telephone number is (571)270-7052. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 8-4:30PST. Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice. If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Peter Choi can be reached at 469-295-9171. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300. Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000. /ELIZA A LAM/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3681
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Prosecution Timeline

May 21, 2024
Application Filed
Jun 03, 2026
Non-Final Rejection mailed — §103 (current)

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Study what changed to get past this examiner. Based on 5 most recent grants.

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Prosecution Projections

1-2
Expected OA Rounds
38%
Grant Probability
69%
With Interview (+31.2%)
4y 4m (~2y 2m remaining)
Median Time to Grant
Low
PTA Risk
Based on 554 resolved cases by this examiner. Grant probability derived from career allowance rate.

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