Patent decision
- BL number
- O/427/20
- Concerning rights in
- GB1510444.1
- Hearing Officer
- Mr B Buchanan
- Decision date
- 8 September 2020
- Person(s) or Company(s) involved
- Hitachi, Ltd.
- Provisions discussed
- Patents Act 1977 section 1(2)(c)
- Keywords
- Excluded fields (refused)
- Related Decisions
- None
Summary
The application relates to reducing the risk of a patient being readmitted when being referred to a different hospital. The claimed invention comprises a readmission risk calculation unit for informing a decision as to whether or not to refer a patient to a particular medical institution. The readmission risk is calculated on the basis of patient information and information about the potential referral destination medical institution. A patient referral request is presented to the destination institution if the calculated risk is below a threshold.
The Applicant alleged that the invention provided a more reliable notification and that the inherently physical nature of the invention reduced network burden, improved patient information security and allowed more efficient use of resources. The Applicant sought to support their argument by analogy with the improved alarm of PKTWO.
The Hearing Officer followed the four step Aerotel/Macrossan test to determine whether there was a technical contribution and considered the AT&T signposts. He also took account of PKTWO. The contribution was not found to provide the required technical effect and the claimed invention related solely to a program for a computer and a method for doing business as such, so the application did not meet the requirements of section 1(2)(c). The application was refused under section 18(3).
Full decision O/427/20 417Kb