METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR ONLINE HEALTH MONITORING

摘要

Methods for providing online health monitoring (16) and accumulating data from patients worldwide and accompanying apparatus for using the same, are disclosed. Such monitoring is particularly useful for both diagnosing and prescribing preventive medical treatment, and is particularly suited for the field of cardiovascular health care. Preferred methods and devices include using a sensitive acoustic device such as an electret, to analyze a patient's cardiovascular functions from a location such as a public computer kiosk, a doctor's office or a patient's home computer. The data may be downloaded from an acoustic device to a central database located, for example on the Internet. The data may be retrieved by the patient, or upon instructions from the patient, may be transferred to or accessed by doctors for purposes of diagnosis, monitoring and treatment. Data may include patient demographics. This data is accessible by researchers who will have medical statistics on a wide variety of patients from various age groups and medical histories.