A VOICE-ACTIVATED COMPUTERIZED PATIENT DATA-GATHERING SYSTEM

THE PRIMARY OBJECTIVE OF THIS STUDY IS TO CONTINUE DEVELOPMENT OF A SYSTEM TO COLLECT DATA FROM A PATIENT BY DISPLAYING QUESTIONS ON A COMPUTER SCREEN AND ALLOWING THE PATIENT TO SPEAK HIS OR HER ANSWERS. THE RESULTING PATIENT DATA-GATHERING SYSTEM WILL BE CAPABLE OF COLLECTING INFORMATION ON THE STATE OF THE PATIENT'S HEALTH FOR LIMITED AREAS OF MEDICINE. SPECIFICALLY, IN THIS PHASE, THE SYSTEM WILL INTERROGATE A PATIENT WHO COMPLAINS OF BACK PAIN OR A HEADACHE. THE SYSTEM WILL USE A COMMERCIAL SPEAKER-INDEPENDENT, LARGE-VOCABULARY, CONTINUOUS SPEECH RECOGNITION SYSTEM TO UNDERSTAND THE PATIENT. A KEY REQUIREMENT FOR THE SUCCESS OF THIS PRIMARY OBJECTIVE IS THE DEVELOPMENT OF QUERY MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE THAT ALLOWS QUESTIONS AND TREATMENT OF PATIENT RESPONSES TO BE SPECIFIED AND CHANGED EFFICIENTLY. THIS TOOL WILL ALLOW THE NECESSARY INTERACTION, BUT WILL RELIEVE THE DEVELOPER FROM THE NEED TO WRITE CUSTOM SOFTWARE. A SECONDARY OBJECTIVE OF THIS RESEARCH IS TO DEVELOP GENERAL-PURPOSE SPEECH-RECOGNITION TOOLS THAT WILL BE USED BY THE QUERY MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE TO FURTHER EASE THE BURDEN OF SPECIFYING THE USER-SYSTEM INTERACTION. SPECIFICALLY, SPEECH SYSTEMS, INC., WILL EXTEND AND INTEGRATE EXISTING TOOLS FOR KEYWORD SEARCH AND SENTENCE PARSING. THE RESULTING SYSTEM WILL UNDERGO PERIODIC DESIGN REVIEW AND EVALUATION.