Delivery of medical services using electronic data communications

A method for use by a medical office, said method comprising the steps of

• receiving from a patient a first incoming electronic data communication which describes medical symptoms experienced by that patient,
• creating, and storing in a memory of a computer, a patient transaction record, said patient transaction record including symptom information indicative of medical symptoms described in said first incoming electronic data communication,
• transmitting to a medical testing facility a first outgoing electronic data communication which specifies at least one selected diagnostic test to be performed on said patient, said one diagnostic test being selected in response to at least a first portion of the medical symptoms described in said first incoming electronic data communication,
• receiving from said medical testing facility a second incoming electronic data communication which includes results of said at least one diagnostic test,
• adding said test results to said patient transaction record stored in said memory, and
• transmitting to said patient a second outgoing electronic data communication prescribing a selected course of medical treatment, said course of medical treatment being selected in response to at least a second portion of the information in said patient transaction record, said second portion including said test results and said symptom information.

A method for use by a medical office, said method comprising the steps of

• receiving from a patient a first incoming electronic data communication which describes medical symptoms experienced by that patient,
• creating, and storing in a memory of a computer, a patient transaction record, said patient transaction record including symptom information indicative of medical symptoms described in said first incoming electronic data communication,
• retrieving at least a portion of said symptom information from said memory,
• transmitting to an epidemiological database computer facility a first outgoing electronic data communication which includes at least said retrieved portion of said symptom information and which further includes epidemiologically significant information about said patient, said epidemiological database computer facility being of a type which stores epidemiological transaction records received from a multiplicity of medical offices, at least including information describing a) medical symptoms of, b) epidemiological information about, and c) diagnoses of medical conditions of, respective patients, and
• receiving from said epidemiological database computer facility a second incoming electronic data communication which describes at least one diagnosis, said one diagnosis being the same as the diagnosis contained in a plurality of epidemiological transaction records stored in said epidemiological database computer facility, said plurality of epidemiological transaction records each including symptoms and epidemiologically significant information which correspond to those included in said first outgoing electronic data communication transmitted to said epidemiological database computer facility, and
• transmitting to said patient a second outgoing electronic data communication prescribing a selected course of medical treatment, said course of medical treatment being selected as a function of said one diagnosis.