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 .
This office action is in response to the claimed amendment filed on November 11, 2025, in which claims 1, 9 and 15 were amended, claims 2-8, 10-14 and 16-20 were canceled, claims 21-37 are amended, and claims 1, 9, 15 and 21-37 are presented for further examination.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement filed on September 26, 2025 and November 13, 2025 complies with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97, 1.98 and MPEP § 609. It has been placed in the application file. The information referred to therein has been considered as to the merits.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments with respect to claims 1, 9, 15 and 21-37 have been considered but are moot in view of the new ground(s) of rejection necessitated by amendment.
Remark
It is noted that the applicant generally cannot delete all limitations of the independent claims 1, 9 and 15 and replace them with entirely new ones that introduce matter not originally disclosed, as this violates the "new matter" rule (35 U.S.C. 132). While the applicant can amend claims, any changes, especially deletions, must be supported by the original specification and drawings; removing key limitations to add new concepts often broadens the claim or introduces new subject matter, triggering new matter objections and potentially invalidating the patent.
Election/Restrictions
Restriction to one of the following inventions is required under 35 U.S.C. 121:
Newly submitted amended claims 1, 9 and 15 and the newly amended claims 21-37 directed to an invention that is independent or distinct from the invention originally claimed for the following reasons:
Amended claims 1, 9 and 15 and the newly amended claims 21-37 directed to receive a transcript of a conversation between a healthcare provider and a patient, the transcript including unstructured patient information; segmenting, by a large language model (LLM), the transcript into segments based on the unstructured patient information, wherein each of the segments includes a particular instance of the unstructured patient information; identifying, for each of the segments, one or more rows of an electronic health record (EHR) flowsheet that are relevant to the particular instance of unstructured patient information included in the corresponding segment; generating input prompts based on the segments, wherein each of the input prompts includes a corresponding one of the segments and identifies the one or more rows of the EHR flowsheet that are relevant to the particular instance of unstructured patient information included in the corresponding segment; processing the input prompts using a generative artificial intelligence (AI) model to extract structured patient information for populating the EHR flowsheet; and populating the EHR flowsheet using the structured patient information.
whereas the original claims 1, 9 and 15 are directed to processing a transcript including a plurality of portions; generating a reduced schema set from a structured document by identifying a subset of schema rows from the structured document using the transcript, wherein the structured document conforms to a schema; generating a reduced example set from a database of examples associated with a structured document by identifying a subset of examples from the structured document using the transcript; composing the reduced schema set and the reduced example set into a reduced composite schema set; extracting an instance of information from the transcript by processing a prompt including the reduced composite schema set with a generative artificial intelligence (AI) model using retrieval augmented generation (RAG); and populating a schema row of the structured document with the instance of information from the transcript.
Since applicant has received an action on the merits for the originally presented invention, this invention has been constructively elected by original presentation for prosecution on the merits.
Accordingly, claims 1, 9, 15 and 21-37 are withdrawn from consideration as being directed to a non-elected invention. See 37 CFR 1.142(b) and MPEP § 821.03
To preserve a right to petition, the reply to this action must distinctly and specifically point out supposed errors in the restriction requirement. Otherwise, the election shall be treated as a final election without traverse. Traversal must be timely. Failure to timely traverse the requirement will result in the loss of right to petition under 37 CFR 1.144. If claims are subsequently added, applicant must indicate which of the subsequently added claims are readable upon the elected invention.
Should applicant traverse on the ground that the inventions are not patentably distinct, applicant should submit evidence or identify such evidence now of record showing the inventions to be obvious variants or clearly admit on the record that this is the case. In either instance, if the examiner finds one of the inventions unpatentable over the prior art, the evidence or admission may be used in a rejection under 35 U.S.C. 103 or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 103(a) of the other invention.
Conclusion
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) 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.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JEAN M CORRIELUS whose telephone number is (571)272-4032. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 6:30a-10p(Midflex).
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, Ann J Lo can be reached at (571)272-9767. 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.
/JEAN M CORRIELUS/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2159 December 30, 2025