WO2005109297A2

WO2005109297A2 - Mobile electronic device for medical diagnosis

Info

Publication number: WO2005109297A2
Application number: PCT/IB2005/051367
Authority: WO
Inventors: Olaf Such; Josef Lauter; Harald Reiter; Ralf Schmidt; Andras Montvay; Jens Muehlsteff
Original assignee: Philips Intellectual Property and Standards GmbH; Koninklijke Philips Electronics NV
Current assignee: Philips Intellectual Property and Standards GmbH; Koninklijke Philips NV
Priority date: 2004-05-11
Filing date: 2005-04-27
Publication date: 2005-11-17
Anticipated expiration: 2006-11-11
Also published as: WO2005109297A3

Abstract

The present invention relates to a mobile electronic device for acquisition of medical data of a user. The mobile electronic device is preferably implemented as an electronic otoscope and serves to acquire otoscope images indicating for example ear infections and tonsillitis. The mobile electronic device is adapted to transmit acquired medical data to a service center by making use of conventional communication devices. In response to a request, the user receives appropriate medical assistance from the service center. Since the mobile electronic device has implemented a billing module, the user not necessarily has to register with the service center. A huge variety of different payment models applies allowing for a universal usage of the mobile electronic device for various scenarios related to child care or medical assistance during travel and holiday. The mobile electronic device is ideally suited for universal medical precaution and medical assistance.

Description

Mobile electronic device for medical diagnosis

The present invention relates to the field of remote diagnostic service. Various systems and devices for remote diagnostic have been recently designed for the personal health care sector. Remote diagnostic is particular advantageous for patients that are under regular medical treatment and that may suffer from a chronic disease, as e.g. hyper-tension, long lasting infections, or other diseases that can be effectively cured by medication. After being physically examined by a qualified medical personnel, the patient receives an appropriate diagnostic device and is instructed in its use. Diagnostic devices for remote diagnostic are typically hand held or portable devices that are dedicated to be taken home by the patient. Typically, these diagnostic devices are accomplished with a huge variety of sensors and/or imaging means. Furthermore, remote diagnostic devices are adapted to collect relevant data that is indicative of the state of health of the patient. Moreover, remote diagnostic devices are adapted to transmit collected diagnostic data to the qualified medical personnel. Transmission of data makes use of various telecommunication platforms, such as wireless or fixed telephone communication or computer based network communication making use of e.g. the internet. In response to receiving of the collected diagnostic data the qualified medical personnel is able to analyze the received data in order to prescribe the appropriate medication. Making efficient use of remote diagnostic systems therefore effectively reduces costs and efforts of patient and medical personnel likewise. On the one hand, the patient is able to acquire relevant data in a home environment and is no longer required to call on medical personnel for standard examinations. On the other hand the efforts of the medical personnel remarkably reduce because relevant patient data are already provided by the patient and therefore need not to be acquired by a highly skilled authorized medical personnel. Remote diagnostic can effectively be applied for non life threatening medical problems and is of great advantage for the health care of children, elderly or disabled people for whom frequenting of a health care center is rather laborious.

The document US 6,319,199 Bl discloses a portable data collection device being preferably used in an environment of a prescription controlled data collection system. A doctor having access to a server prescribes a particular diagnostic procedure to a patient in a remote location by communicating a prescription to a central server over a communications medium. In one example, the prescription authorizes the use of an appropriate diagnostic or data collection device that is in the possession of a patient. The prescription process may include registration of the data collection device (whose use by the patient is authorized) with the server. The prescription process may also include identification of the doctor to the server and identification of the specific data to be collected by the patient. Moreover, there may exist various types of prescriptions such as a device use prescription and a data transfer prescription. The prescription process generally allows to authorize and to specify a usage of the diagnostic device. Scenarios of application of remote diagnostic as they are known from the prior art are based on a communication between a prescribing or authorized party and a data collection party, such as a remote patient. Even though most of the remote diagnostic devices are designed as portable devices, they require a distinct and specially adapted base station for communication of collected data. Such a base unit is also described in US 6,319,199 Bl. Here, the base unit provides a send button to initiate transmission of collected data to an external device, and LED indicators for displaying status and/or alerting or signaling the user. Furthermore the base unit has a storage compartment facilitating physical storage of components and accessories such as speculum covers and batteries. Consequently, for performing remote diagnostic, a patient has to take care of at least a data collecting device and an additional base unit providing communication of the collected data. Application of remote diagnostic systems as they are known from the prior art is generally not limited to be performed in a particular home environment. In principle, the remote diagnostic can be performed in any environment that provides the necessary telecommunication infrastructure. However, remote diagnostic devices are not particularly designed for mobile application and are rather impractical for transportation due to their multi-component design. The present invention therefore aims to provide a mobile diagnostic device, a service center and a method for providing medical assistance. The present invention provides a portable electronic device that comprises means for acquisition of medical data and in particular of otolaryngological data. The portable electronic device further comprises means for transmission of the medical data to a service center in response to a user's input operation for requesting a medical assistance. Finally, the portable electronic device comprises means for billing of the requested medical assistance. The portable electronic device and in particular its means for acquisition of medical data are designed for acquisition of a plurality of various medical data. Therefore, the portable electronic device is for example designed as a rhinoscope, laryngoscope, ophthalmoscope, heart monitor, blood pressure monitor, oxygen saturation monitor or even as a camera for dermatology. Preferably, the means for acquisition are particularly designed for acquiring of otolaryngological data. In this case, the portable electronic device is designed as an electronic otoscope. Such an electronic otoscope typically has a grip in which a power supply, preferably a battery based power source is located. Additionally, an otoscope has a head in which a light source and an optical imaging system is located. Preferably, a tungsten lamp or a color changeable semi-conductor based light source is used. Moreover, the head also features light guiding structures such as lenses, fiber optics or mirrors providing sufficient illumination of an area of interest. An optical imaging system is further adapted to acquire visual images of an area of interest by making use of CMOS or CCD based sensors. The inventive portable electronic device is adapted to operate only in response of a user's input operation, i.e. the user has the complete authority to make use of the portable electronic device. This means that no kind of prescription or authorization of a qualified medical personnel is required for making efficient use of the functionality of the portable electronic device. The user is completely free to contact a service center at any time after purchase of the portable electronic device for seeking medical assistance. Hence, a general registration or prescription of the portable electronic device to a service center upon purchase of the portable electronic device is not required. The user has complete control of transmission of collected medical data to a service center and may therefore request medical assistance according to its own demand only. Since the portable electronic device also comprises means for billing of the medical assistance various different payment methods for the medical assistance can be implemented. The means for billing also allow a complete anonymous utilization of the portable electronic device in combination with the service center providing requested medical assistance. According to a further preferred embodiment of the invention, the means for transmission of the portable electronic device are adapted to wirelessly communicate with a telecommunication device via a standard communication protocol. The telecommunication device is further adapted to provide communication with the service center. The telecommunication device may be implemented as a cellular phone, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a laptop computer, a conventional telephone system and any other portable or non-portable communication device. Communication between the inventive portable electronic device and the telecommunication device is preferably based on infrared and/or radio frequency communication techniques by making use of communication standards, such as GSM, UMTS, Blue Tooth, Wireless LAN, IEEE 802.11, Wireless Application Protocol (WAP), IrDA protocols or even Ultra WideBand (UWB). By making use of standard communication protocols in combination with external telecommunication devices, the inventive portable electronic device is able to transmit acquired medical data to the service center without making use of a specially designed base station. Hence, the portable electronic device can be universally adapted to a plurality of existing and widely distributed communication devices. Moreover, this feature allows universal and flexible application of a portable electronic device which is especially advantageous during travel or on holidays. Preferably, the inventive portable electronic device features a compact design and is therefore well adapted for mobile usage, when a patient is not at home. Moreover, this flexible and universal application feature of the transmission means make the portable electronic device ideally suitable for applications in child care and medical precaution. According to a further preferred embodiment of the invention, the means for transmission of the medical data are further adapted for transmitting of location data that are indicative of the current location of the portable electronic device. Location data can be obtained by any commercial positioning system like the Global Positioning Satellite System (GPS) or can be specified by the user of the portable electronic device making use of a user interface of the portable electronic device. Alternatively, location data can be obtained by the telecommunication device or by any other additional device like a GPS receiver. Location data may be supplied with the portable electronic device either manually, i.e. by means of user interaction, or automatically, i.e. via communication with a positioning system. Alternatively, the portable electronic device comprises a GPS module and is therefore capable of autonomously generating location data. Transmitting of location data of the portable electronic device to the service center may be extremely valuable in case the medical data cannot be sufficiently analyzed by the service center or in case that the medical data indicates an alarming medical status of the user. In such a case, the service center may already invoke emergency actions on the basis of the obtained medical and location data. According to a further preferred embodiment of the invention, the means for acquisition of the medical data are adapted to provide acquisition instructions. In order to simplify utilization of the portable electronic device, medical data acquisition makes preferable use of a predefined acquisition schedule. When for example otolaryngological data has to be acquired and the acquisition means are adapted as an otoscope, the acquisition schedule may specify a distinct order in which various parts of the user have to be acquired. For example the acquisition instructions may instruct the user to acquire an image of the left ear drum first, followed by an image of the right ear drum, followed by an image of the tongue, etc... In this way acquired images can be unequivocally assigned to a corresponding description. Preferably, a description and a corresponding image are encoded or mutually linked before transmission to the service center. The service center then applies the appropriate decoding procedure in order to resolve the assignment between description and corresponding image. According to a further preferred embodiment of the invention, the portable electronic device further comprises means for non- volatile storage of reference medical data. Reference medical data has to be acquired when the person is in a healthy state. The reference data can be stored in the portable electronic device but can also be transmitted to the service center. Reference medical data that is either stored by the portable electronic device or by means of a database of the service center effectively allows to determine whether medical data indicates for example some kind of inflammation. For example making use of an electronic otoscope and acquiring images of tonsils in a non-inflamed state may serve as a basis for reference medical data. In case of an inflammation, medical data can be acquired in a similar way and can either be directly compared with stored reference data by making use of the portable electronic device or by sending both reference data and recently acquired medical data to the service center in order to obtain assistance. Storage of reference medical data in the portable electronic device provides a large flexibility of the inventive device. A customer purchasing the portable electronic device may use it for acquisition of reference data without registering to a service center. Only in case that medical assistance is required, the customer makes use of the service center or may even perform a comparison of reference data and medical data by himself. According to a further preferred embodiment of the invention, the portable electronic device further comprises an identifier module that is adapted for non- volatile storage of an identification code of the portable electronic device. The identification code serves as a kind of serial number of the portable electronic device and allows to uniquely identify each portable electronic device by the service center. Upon registration of a portable electronic device with the service center at least the identification code of the portable electronic device has to be transmitted to the service center. Together with the identification code additional customer information can be provided to the service center. Later on when the portable electronic device transmits any kind of medical data to the service center, it always transmits the identification code. In this way medical data can be sufficiently assigned to a distinct portable electronic device and/or a corresponding customer. According to a further preferred embodiment of the invention, the portable electronic device further comprises means for registering of the portable electronic device with the service center. Upon registration of the portable electronic device payment information of the user are transmitted to the service center. Preferably, a user or customer of the portable electronic device may select one of a plurality of various registering modes. A customer may register to the service center directly after purchase of the portable electronic device, acquire reference data and transmit the acquired reference data to the service center. In such a case a customer typically would have to pay an initial registration fee and may get a discount for subsequent requests for medical assistance. Alternatively, the customer may decide not to register to the service center initially. In this case the customer only registers upon request of medical assistance. In such a case the customer is charged higher rates for medical assistance. For example, the customer is charged per call to the service center. In another payment model, the customer may be charged a monthly or annual basic fee and gets a discount on assistance calls. The payment information that has to be transmitted to the service center can be any information required for any kind of electronic payment transaction. The payment information can for example consist of a bank account number allowing the service center to withdraw charges from the customer's bank account. Payment information can also be a credit card number of the customer for withdrawal of assistance fees from a credit account. In another embodiment, the customer establishes an assistance account with the provider of the service center. Irrespectively of the chosen payment method, the payment information is only transmitted once to the service center in combination with the identification code of the portable electronic device. The payment information is then stored by the service center and charging of a customer's account is performed on the basis of the identification code of the portable electronic device. Storing of the payment information by the service center brings along the advantage that upon request of medical assistance sensitive payment information do not have to be transmitted between the customer and the service center. The stored payment information is uniquely assigned to an identification code of the portable electronic device. Transmitting of the identification code in addition with acquired medical data allows a reliable debiting of assistance fees of a corresponding account of the customer. According to a further preferred embodiment of the invention, the portable electronic device comprises a contact information module providing information required for establishing a communication between the portable electronic device and the service center. In this way necessary contact information is already stored in the portable electronic device. In case a customer requires assistance of the service center, the portable electronic device is adapted to autonomously establish a communication link to the service center via a telecommunication device. Depending on the type of telecommunication device, the contact information module stores and provides the necessary contact information such as phone number, URL, facsimile number, email address or any similar contact information of the service center. According to a further preferred embodiment of the invention, the means for billing are adapted to make use of a debit module for debiting charges from a debit card. Making use of this particular embodiment, the payment information of the customer need not to be transmitted to the service center. Here, charges that apply due to assistance requests are debited from the debit card. Such debit cards are provided by the provider of the service center and can be purchased independently of the purchase of the portable electronic device. Typically, the debit card allows to request for assistance from the service center for a predefined number of times. Especially by means of the debit card, a complete anonymous usage of the portable electronic device and the associated medical assistance can be realized. By purchasing of a debit card payment details of the customer containing the name of the customer need not to be transmitted to the service center for charging of provided assistance. According to a further preferred embodiment of the invention, the means for billing are further adapted to make use of the contact information module providing a chargeable phone number. When the user contacts to the service center via a phone connection on the basis of the chargeable or service phone number, the assistance fees as well as the telecommunication charges are debited from the customer's telecommunication account. In this way, the telecommunication provider withdraws the assistance fees of the service center from the user's phone account and then transfers the assistance fees to the service center. Typically, for such a chargeable phone number or service number relatively high rates apply, because the assistance fees of the service center accumulate on top of the telecommunication rates. In another aspect the invention provides a service center for providing of medical assistance in response to a user's request. The service center comprises means for receiving of medical data acquired and transmitted by a portable electronic device and means for processing of the medical data on the basis of a comparison with reference medical data in order to generate medical assistance. Furthermore, the service center comprises means for billing of the medical assistance. According to a further preferred embodiment of the invention, the service center comprises a database that is adapted to store and to provide medical reference data and in particular otolaryngological reference data. The database further comprises a registering status of each portable electronic device that has been registered with the service center. Furthermore, the database of the service center is further adapted to store and to provide payment details of each user or customer of the portable electronic device. In this way any customer can easily register with the service center by transmitting of medical reference data and additional customer related information that is needed for the billing of the provided medical assistance. Depending on the payment details and the registering status of the customer and/or the portable electronic device, various billing procedures may apply. These billing procedures are for example based on a regular basic fee in combination with fees that apply for each case when medical assistance is requested. According to a further preferred embodiment of the invention, the service center further comprises a medical care directory that is indicative of at least one medical care center, the location of the at least one medical care center and the availability of the at least one medical care center. In this context, the at least one medical care center provides external support to the service center and/or to the customer. When for example on the basis of transmitted medical data and stored reference data a sufficient diagnosis cannot be performed due to whatever reason, the customer may receive information of the nearest medical care center that can be consulted for further assistance. According to a further preferred embodiment of the invention, the means for processing of the medical data further comprise means for selecting at least one medical care center and to provide contact information of the at least one medical care center to the user of the portable electronic device. Selection of the at least one medical care center makes use of the medical care directory and the current position of the portable electronic device. In this way location information of the portable electronic device and hence the customer can be effectively processed in order to assist the customer seeking for additional medical treatment and for retrieving the nearest available qualified medical personnel. In still another aspect, the invention provides a method for providing of medical assistance in response to a user's request. The method is performed by a service center and comprises the steps of receiving of medical data acquired and transmitted by a portable electronic device, processing of the medical data on the basis of a comparison with reference medical data in order to generate medical assistance and billing of the medical assistance. It is further to be noted that any reference signs in the claims of the present application shall not be construed as limiting the scope of the invention. In the following preferred embodiments of the invention will be described in detail by making reference to the drawings in which: Figure 1 illustrates a block diagram of an inventive medical assistance environment, Figure 2 shows a block diagram of the portable electronic device, Figure 3 shows a block diagram of the service center with a database, Figure 4 shows a detailed block diagram of the medical assistance environment and external medical care centers, Figure 5 illustrates a flow chart for performing of a first registering procedure, Figure 6 illustrates a flow chart for performing a second registering procedure.

Figure 1 shows a block diagram of the medical assistance environment. The environment consists of an electronic otoscope 100, a user 102, a service center 104 and a conventional telecommunication device 106. In this illustrated embodiment the electronic otoscope 100 is representative for any kind of portable electronic device for acquisition of medical data. The user 102 that has purchased the electronic otoscope 100 may use the electronic otoscope for acquisition of medical reference data. Since the electronic otoscope mainly serves for the purpose of medical precaution, the user 102 should acquire medical reference data directly after purchase of the electronic otoscope 100. In a scenario where the electronic otoscope is used for child care, parents should acquire reference images of e.g. the tonsils and/or images of the ear drums of their children. The acquired reference data can either be stored by means of the electronic otoscope 100 making use of a non- volatile storage module or can be directly transmitted to the service center 104. Either the electronic otoscope 100 is adapted to directly communicate with the service center 104 or it may be adapted to interact with the telecommunication device 106 providing a sufficient communication link to the service center 104. Preferably, communication between the electronic otoscope 100 and the telecommunication device 106 is performed on the basis of some wireless technology like Bluetooth, IrDA, UWB, GPRS. Making use of a mobile phone as telecommunication device, an acquired image could for example be transmitted by making use of the Multimedia Messaging System (MMS) which is based upon the Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) or the General Packet Radio Service (GPRS). Other mobile transmission techniques that are based upon e.g. Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) technology are also conceivable. Furthermore, the telecommunication device 106 in turn can be implemented as a mobile computer, such as a Digital Personal Assistant (PDA) or some kind of network enabled computing device such as a laptop computer. Preferably, communication between the telecommunication device 106 and the service center 104 can be based on any telecommunication infrastructure, such as telephone network, mobile phone network, internet or similar. Assistance generated by the service center 104 can be transmitted to the user 102 via the electronic otoscope 100 by making use of the telecommunication device 106. Alternatively, the medical assistance does not have to be transmitted to the electronic otoscope 100 but can also directly be transmitted to the user 102 via the telecommunication device 106. For example, a user 102 requesting for medical assistance and therefore transmitting medical data to the service center 104 may in response receive an email, a Short Message Service (SMS) message, a phone call, a facsimile or the like. Figure 2 shows a more detailed block diagram of the electronic otoscope

100. In this embodiment, the electronic otoscope 100 has an acquisition module 110, a storage module 112, a debit module 114, an identifier module 116, a contact information module 118, a control module 120, a user interface 122, a location module 124, an encoding module 126 and a transmission module 128. By means of the acquisition module 110 medical data 132 and in particular otolaryngological data can be acquired and by means of the location module 124 location data 130 being indicative of the location of the electronic otoscope 100 can be effectively obtained. The transmission module 128 is adapted to establish communication to the service center 104 either directly or by means of an external telecommunication device as illustrated in figure 1. The acquisition module 110 is preferably implemented with typical hardware components that are required for sufficient data acquisition. For example, an electronic otoscope requires a speculum, a light source as well as an imaging system for acquisition of images of e.g. tonsils or ear drums. Acquired image data is then stored by means of the storage module 112. Preferably, the storage module is a non- volatile memory unit such as e.g. a compact flash card, a smart media card, a secure digital card that are widely commercially distributed. Preferably, the storage medium may be removed from the electronic otoscope allowing for a flexible handling of the acquired and stored data. Such an embodiment not necessarily has to provide wireless communication means. Removing some kind of storage card from the electronic otoscope and inserting the storage card into a card reading device, such as a PDA, portable computer or even mobile phone allows to read, analyze and to transmit the acquired medical data by any external device. The storage module 112 is adapted for storage of reference medical data and recently acquired medical data. Any kind of stored medical data can be transmitted to the service center 104 by means of the transmission module 128. Additionally, the user interface may provide a display and input means for illustrating acquired images to the user and for provide acquisition instructions to the user during an acquisition procedure. When the acquisition procedure is performed on the basis of a predefined acquisition scheme, the user can be instructed to make use of the electronic otoscope 100 for acquisition of particular regions of body, like e.g. the left ear drum. After acquisition of a corresponding image, the user might get instructed to acquire an image of the right ear drum and so on. Making use of such predefined acquisition schemes effectively provides assignment between acquired images and corresponding description. The encoding module 126 is adapted to encode acquired images with corresponding description information. In this way a description of a medical image can be included in the image itself. Transmitting an acquired image on the basis of the multi-media messaging system (MMS) then provides the service center 104 with all required information like a medical image and additional description information of the image. Also, additional medical data like body temperature, blood pressure, heart rate of the patient can be encoded with an acquired image. Typically the encoding procedure performed by the encoding module 126 is based on a conventional encoding technique and may also include data compression. Making use of an encoding technique requires that the service center 104 makes use of a corresponding decoding technique. By means of the location module 124 location data 130 being indicative of the location of the electronic otoscope 100 can be sufficiently obtained. Location data 130 can for example be obtained by making use of the Global Positioning Satellite System (GPS). For this purpose, either the location module 124 itself is implemented as a GPS module, or the location module 124 is implemented to communicate with an external positioning system, such as e.g. a car navigation system. The contact information module 118 is adapted to store and to provide contact details for establishing a communication to the service center 104. For example the contact information module 118 stores a phone number, an email address, a URL or similar information in a non- volatile way. Hence, the electronic otoscope 100 is enabled to autonomously establish a communication to the service center 104. The user or customer of the electronic otoscope 100 does therefore not have to provide any contact details. When requested by the user, the electronic otoscope 100 autonomously establishes a communication to the service center 104. The identifier module 1 16 stores a unique identification code of the electronic otoscope 100. Preferably, the identifier module 116 stores the identification code in a non-volatile way. Transmission of medical data is usually accompanied by transmission of the identification code of the electronic otoscope 100. In this way, the service center 104 is enabled to assign received medical data to corresponding reference data that has been transmitted to the service center 104 at an earlier stage. The debit module 114 is for example implemented to make use of a debit card that can be inserted into the electronic otoscope 100. Transmission of medical data to the service center then charges an amount from the debit card by means of the debit module 114. This allows for usage of the inventive medical device without registration to the service center at all. Hence, an anonymous customer purchasing the portable electronic device is enabled to transmit medical data and reference data to the service center for the purpose of receiving medical assistance in response. The control module 120 is adapted to control interaction and interplay between the single modules of the electronic otoscope 100. In particular it serves for processing of user input provided by the user interface 122 and initiates acquisition of medical data by making use of the acquisition module, transmission of stored medical data by making use of the transmission module 128 and the storage module 112, etc. Figure 3 illustrates a block diagram of the service center 104 having a database 140. Here, only a few components of the electronic otoscope are illustrated, such as the storage module 112, the user interface 122 and the identifier module 116. The electronic otoscope 100 is adapted to communicate with the service center 104. The database 140 of the service center is adapted to store an identification code 142, a user name 144, a register status 146, payment details of the user 148 and reference data of the user 150. Each of the database entries 142, 144, ... 150 are typically generated upon registering of the electronic otoscope 100 with the service center 104. When registering with the service center 104, the electronic otoscope 100 submits its unique identification code that is stored in the field 142 of the database 140. Upon registering, the service center 104 may be supplied with further user related information like the user's name 144 and the user's payment details 148. Since the user may choose between various registering procedures, a corresponding register status 146 indicating the type of registering of a user with the service center 104 may be stored in the database 140. The register status 146 indicates whether the user pays a monthly or annual basic fee or whether the user prefers to make payments only on the basis of required assistance obtained from the service center 104. Depending on the register status 146 various charges for the medical assistance apply. Furthermore, the database 140 provides storage of reference data 150. Reference data can either be transmitted from the electronic otoscope 100 to the service center 104 upon registering with the service center. Alternatively, the reference data can be provided at any later instance. The medical assistance environment also allows to skip an initial registration with the service center 104. In such a case reference data is locally stored by means of a non-volatile storage of the electronic otoscope 100. Only in such a case that medical assistance is required, recently acquired medical data and pre-recorded reference data is transmitted to the service center 104. Figure 4 is illustrative of a detailed block diagram of the service center 104 and the electronic otoscope 100 in combination with external medical care centers 170, 172 and external communications device 106. The service center has a database 140 as illustrated in figure 3 and additionally a medical care directory 160. A user 102 is adapted to communicate with the electronic otoscope 100 and the telecommunication device 106. The telecommunication device 106 is adapted to communicate with the service center 104 via the communication link 180. The service center 104 is further adapted to communicate with the medical care center 172 via the communication link 188 and to communicate with medical care center 170 via another communication link 188. The medical care directory 160 provides information of the medical care centers 172, 170. The medical care directory 160 therefore has a list 162 of medical care centers, a type specification 164 of the medical care centers, location information 166 of the medical care centers as well as availability information 168 of the medical care centers. The illustrated embodiment is particularly useful when additional advice from an external medical care center 170, 172 is required for processing of medical assistance required by the user 102. The electronic otoscope 100 is adapted to either communicate with the service center 104 via the communication link 190 or via telecommunication device 106 by making use of the communication links 192 and 180. Preferably, communication link 192 is based on wireless communication techniques such as Bluetooth, IrDA, UWB or GPRS . Communication link 180 between telecommunication device 106 and service center 104 can also be based on wireless communication techniques but can also be implemented by means of a fixed telecommunication network or a computer based network such as the internet. Once medical assistance has been generated by the service center 104 it has to be transmitted to the user 102. This type of transmittance can either be performed by means of the direct communication link 190 between the electronic otoscope 100 and the service center 104 or by means of the telecommunication device 106 making use of the communication link 180. For example, in response of requesting medical assistance from the service center 104, the user 102 may receive a phone call from the service center 104, an email, a SMS message providing further instructions for medication. The user 102 may also be informed by means of the user interface of the electronic otoscope 100. When the medical data transmitted to the service center 104 gives reason to conclude that the user 102 is seriously ill, the service center is able to resolve the location of the electronic otoscope and thus the location of the user 102 in order to provide the user 102 with contact information of the nearest medical care center. In such a case, the user 102 may get instructed to immediately seek a medical care center 170. In such a case the service center provides the user with necessary contact information of the medical care center 170. The user 102 is then enabled to directly communicate with the medical care center 170 either by means of the telecommunication device 106 via the communication links 182 and 184 or via the electronic otoscope 100 by making use of the communication link 186. The medical care centers 170, 172 also provides a communication interface for communicating with the electronic otoscope 100. Therefore, the electronic otoscope 100 is able to transmit acquired medical data directly to the medical care center 170 via communication link 186. The communication infrastructure and medical care environment illustrated in figure 4 is particularly advantageous when the user 102 is on holiday or travels in a region with limited medical support. Moreover, the electronic otoscope 100 is ideally suited for child care when a family's paediatric is not reachable because of traveling in a foreign country or when an infection or tonsillitis occurs during the weekend where the doctor of choice is usually off service. By making use of the inventive environment, a basic medical assistance can be obtained irrespectively of the location of the patient. For example, a child does not have to be confronted with an unknown or even foreign doctor. The inventive system may further be of great advantage when people travel in countries with a poor quality of medical service. Relatively harmless infections that can be reliably diagnosed with an otoscope image could then be treated by corresponding medication without the necessity of frequenting a foreign speaking doctor. Consequently a danger of prescribing a wrong medication due to a language misunderstanding can be minimized. Figure 5 is illustrative of a flow chart for performing of a first registering procedure. In a first step 500 a consumer purchases the electronic otoscope. In a second step 502 the consumer registers to the service center and provides the service center with customer related information, such as a complete name, address, phone number and some kind of payment information. For example, a customer wishing to register to the service center submits a kind of registering application to the service center by making use of the electronic otoscope or by making use of an existing communication infrastructure as for example by browsing to a designated web page. After transmission of required user data and payment information, the customer receives an activation code for the purchased electronic otoscope. Transmittance of such an activation code can be performed by sending an SMS, an email or even by ordinary postal mail. After registering in step 502, the electronic otoscope can be used to acquire and to transmit reference data in step 504. Reference data can either be stored in a non-volatile way in the electronic otoscope itself or can be stored by making use of the database of the service center. Depending on the type of storage various storage charges may apply. At any later time and in case some kind of infection occurs, the electronic otoscope can be used in step 506 in order to acquire and to transmit medical data being indicative of a potential infection. In step 508 medical assistance is generated by the service center on the basis of the reference data and the recently obtained medical data. Finally, in step 510 the provided medical assistance is brought to account. This final billing is based on a plurality of various payment details. Charges that apply per medical assistance strongly depend on whether the customer pays a regular basic fee based on a monthly or annual rate for example. Also depending on the amount of a basic rate a certain number of assistance calls may be toll free within a predefined period of time. Figure 6 is illustrative of an alternative flow chart for making use of the medical assistance without initially registering with the service center. In the first step 600 the electronic otoscope is purchased by the consumer. In this embodiment, the electronic otoscope does not have to be activated by some kind of activation code but is fully functional. Therefore, in a following step 602 necessary reference data can be acquired by the customer by means of the electronic otoscope. In the following step 604 the acquired reference data is stored by means of the storage module of the electronic otoscope. The storage module is based on some kind of non- volatile memory unit guaranteeing that the reference data may not be erased due to a lack of electric power. The only costs that arise up to now are the costs for purchasing the electronic otoscope. Here, no initial registration fee or any kind of general support charge of the service center applies. Only in case that an inflammation or some other discomfort occurs to the user or to the user's child, in step 606 relevant medical data can be acquired on request. After acquisition of the relevant medical data in step 606 the customer is free on how to deal with the obtained data. When for example the electronic otoscope is accomplished with a removable memory card, the customer may perform a comparison between reference data and medical data completely on its own by making use of a personal computer being adapted to read the data stored on the memory card. The customer may then decide to contact the service center or any other kind of medical support such as e.g. the family's paediatric. When the customer decides to make use of the service center's service because of e.g. unavailability of the family's paediatric, the customer has first to register to the service center in step 608. Since medical assistance is generally rapidly required, the registering can be performed online or by making a phone call to the service center, thereby transmitting required payment details and other user related information. After performing of the registering in step 608, the customer may then transmit medical and reference data to the service center by making use of existing telecommunication devices and/or by means of the electronic otoscope. In response of receiving the medical data, the service center generates medical assistance in step 612 and transmits the medical assistance to the customer. Finally, in step 614 the provided assistance is billed by the service center. Since in this example no basic registering fee applies, the costs for a particular medical assistance will be higher compared to a payment model based on initial registering in combination with registering fees and some kind of basic fees. LIST OF REFERENCE NUMERALS

100 electronic otoscope

102 user

104 service center 106 telecommunication device

110 acquisition module

112 storage module

1 14 debit module

116 identifier module 118 contact information module

120 control module

122 user interface

124 location module

126 encoding module 128 transmission module

130 location data

140 date base

142 identifier

144 user name 146 register status

148 payment details

150 reference data

160 medical care directory

162 list of medical care centers 164 type of medical service

166 location

168 availability

170 medical care

172 medical care 180 communication link

182 communication link 184 communication link

186 communication link

188 communication link

190 communication link

192 communication link

Claims

CLAIMS:

1. A portable electronic device (100) comprising:

- means for acquisition of medical data (110),

- means for transmission (128) of the medical data to a service center (104) in response to a user's input operation for requesting a medical assistance, - means for billing of the medical assistance.

2. The portable electronic device (100) according to claim 1, wherein the means for transmission being adapted to wirelessly communicate with a telecommunication device (106) via a standard communication protocol, the telecommunication device providing communication with the service center.

3. The portable electronic device (100) according claim 1, wherein the means for transmission of the medical data being further adapted for transmitting of location data being indicative of the current location of the portable electronic device.

4. The portable electronic device (100) according to claim 1, further comprising means for non-volatile storage (112) of reference medical data.

5. The portable electronic device (100) according to claim 1, further comprising an identifier module (116), the identifier module being adapted for nonvolatile storage of an identification code of the portable electronic device.

6. The portable electronic device (100) according to claim 1, further comprising means for registering of the portable electronic device with the service center (104), wherein upon registering of the portable electronic device payment information of the user being transmitted to the service center.

7. The portable electronic device (100) according to claim 1, wherein the means for billing being adapted to make use of debit module (114) being adapted to debit charges from a debit card.

8. The portable electronic device (100) according claim 1, wherein the means for billing being adapted to use a contact information module (118) providing a chargeable phone number.

9. A service center ( 104) for providing of medical assistance in response to a user's request, the service center comprising:

- means for receiving of medical data acquired and transmitted by a portable electronic device (100),

- means for processing of the medical data on the basis of a comparison with reference medical data in order to generate medical assistance,

- means for billing of the medical assistance.

10. The service center (104) according to claim 9, further comprising a data base (140) being adapted to provide: - medical reference data (150),

- a register status (146) of the portable electronic device,

- payment details of the user of the portable electronic device.

11. The service center according to claim 9, further comprising a medical care directory (160) being indicative of at least one medical care center (170, 172), the location of the at least one medical care center and the availability of the at least one medical care center.

12. The service center according to claim 11, wherein the means for processing of the medical data further comprising means for selecting at least one medical care center (170, 172) and to provide contact information of the at least one medical care center to the user (102), selecting of the at least one medical care center making use of the medical care directory (160) and the current position of the portable electronic device (100).

13. A method for providing of medical assistance in response to a user's request comprising the steps of:

- receiving of medical data acquired and transmitted by means of a portable electronic device (100),

- processing of the medical data on the basis of a comparison with reference medical data in order to generate medical assistance,

- billing of the medical assistance.

14. The method according to claim 13, wherein processing of the medical data further comprising making use of a medical care directory (160) being indicative of at least one medical care center (170, 172), the location of the at least one medical care center and the availability of the at least one medical care center.