Method for determining normal measurements for a patient

A method for determining a norm for use in assessing normalcy of a patient being examined, comprising the steps of:

• determining at least one physical characteristic of the patient from the examination;
• expressing the determination of the at least one characteristic in XML syntax;
• obtaining guidelines relating to the determination of the at least one characteristic from the examination, the guidelines being described using a methods ontology based on semantic web technology;
• obtaining information about the patient other than from the examination from a hospital or departmental information system using HL7 messaging which uses XML syntax;
• obtaining established norms for the at least one characteristic;
• expressing the established normal ranges of the at least one characteristic in XML syntax;
• and
• providing an inference engine to receive the determination of the at least one characteristic, the guidelines relating to the determination of the at least one characteristic and the information about the patient other than from the examination and selecting one of the established norms to be applied to the patient based thereon.

A system for determining a norm for use in assessing normalcy of a patient, comprising:

• a modality for obtaining physical measurements of a patient and enabling at least physical characteristic of the patient to be derived;
• a processor coupled to said modality;
• a repository of medical information about the patient coupled to said processor,
• at least one library of norms relating to characteristics of the patient coupled to said processor;
• and
• at least one library coupled to said processor and containing clinical guidelines associated with a procedure used by said modality to derive the characteristics;
• said processor being arranged to receive the characteristics of the patient derived by said modality, medical information about the patient from said repository of medical information, the norms from said at least one library of norms and the clinical guidelines from said at least one library of clinical guidelines and select one of said norms which is most appropriate for use with the patient.