Method and system for health assessment and monitoring

1. A method of assessing the health status of a patient, comprising the steps of:

generating, by a processing device, a customized test, based on the patient's characteristics and one or more health domains, the test having a plurality of questions for the patient selected in accordance with the one or more health domains, in which the health domains are selected by:

comparing the patient's characteristics with other patient's characteristics;

determining at least one health domain for the patient by identifying at least one health domain related to other patients with similar characteristics;

estimating, by the processing device, a score for the patient based on a survey of other patients with similar characteristics;

administering, through a user interface, the test by providing one question at a time to the patient;

after each question, evaluating, by the processing device, answers provided by the patient to administered questions to adjust the estimated score and to calculate a confidence level in the accuracy of the estimated score;

varying, by the processing device, a threshold, after each question, as a function of the estimated score during administration of the test to the patient;

and dynamically modifying the test being administered to the patient, with the processing device, based on an answer provided to a prior question, the estimated confidence level, and the threshold.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising generating a report regarding the health status of the patient.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the health domain is related to a condition experienced or perceived by the patient.

4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising ranking the plurality of questions in accordance with the estimated score; and selecting a question from the plurality of questions based on the ranking that has not been administered to the patient.

5. The method of claim 4 , further comprising selecting a highest rank question.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein dynamically modifying comprises terminating the administration of the test if it is determined that the estimated confidence level is within the threshold.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein further comprising selecting the questions for the health domain from a database having questions and answers pertaining to a plurality of health domains.

8. The method of claim 1 , further comprising providing a list of possible answers for each question to the patient.

9. The method of claim 1 , further comprising statistically analyzing the answers provided by the patient for errors; wherein the patient's answers to at least two questions are compared to an error threshold to determine whether an error has occurred.

10. The method of claim 1 , further comprising statistically analyzing the answers provided by the patient for consistency.

11. The method of claim 1 , further comprising statistically analyzing the answers provided by the patient for estimating non-responsive answers to the test.

12. The method of claim 2 , wherein reporting further comprises comparing the answers provided by the patient with answers provided by other patients in the health domain.

13. The method of claim 1 , further comprising administering the test to the patients over a network.

14. The method of claim 2 , wherein generating the report comprises generating the report over a network.

15. The method of claim 13 , wherein the network is one of the following: an Internet, an intranet, a telephone network, and a wireless network.

16. The method of claim 1 , wherein the health domain includes at least one of the following: severity of headaches, level of depression, degree of personal mobility, self-perceived status, effectiveness of a treatment, and physical health, emotional health, impact of asthma, job satisfaction, opinion polling general overall health.

17. The method of claim 1 , in which the step of estimating a score for the patient based on a survey of other patients with similar characteristics comprises:

estimating a first score for a first health domain of the one or more health domains; and

estimating a second score for a second health domain of the one or more health domains.

18. The method of claim 17 , in which the step of varying, by the processing device, a threshold, after each question, as a function of the estimated score during administration of the test to the patient comprises:

varying a first threshold corresponding to the first health domain; and

varying a second threshold corresponding to the second health domain.

19. A method of dynamically administering a test to assess a domain, comprising:

generating, by a processing device, a customized test, based on a respondent's characteristics and one or more domains selected by the respondent or test provider, the test having a plurality of questions for the respondent in accordance with the selected domains, in which the health domains are selected by:

comparing the respondent's characteristics with other patient's characteristics;

determining at least one health domain for the respondent by identifying at least one health domain related to other patients with similar characteristics;

estimating, by the processing device, a score for the respondent based on a survey of other patients with similar characteristics;

administering, through a user interface, the test by providing one question at a time to the respondent;

evaluating, by the processing device, answers, after each question, provided by the respondent to administered questions to estimate a score and a confidence level in the accuracy of the estimated score;

varying, by the processing device, threshold, after each question, as a function of the estimated score during administration of the test to the respondent; and

dynamically modifying the test being administered to the respondent, with a processing device, based on an answer provided to a prior question, the estimated confidence level, and the threshold.

20. The method of claim 19 , further comprising terminating the administration of the test if it is determined that estimated confidence level is within the threshold.

21. The method of claim 19 , where the domain is one or more health related or non-related options.