Importance

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Abstract

A Patient Protocol Card ('PPC') is provided on which a physician may store the information required for a prescribed treatment, for example, the patient's name, prescribed intensity of the treatment, duration of different phases of the treatment, and number of treatments. PPC may then be used to initiate and control the work of the device administering the prescribed treatment. To initiate the procedure and to convey required information to a control unit, the card is inserted into a card receptacle of the control unit, which preferably incorporates a card reading mechanism. When the treatment information is conveyed, the control unit administers the procedure in accordance with the physician's prescription. In the preferred embodiment, there are three versions of the PPC: a clinician card, a patient card, and a physician card. The clinician card initializes the control unit to begin treatment. The patient card contains the patient's name, treatment protocol, and treatment number. In one embodiment, for safety, operation of the device can not occur without both the clinician and patient protocol card. The physician card allows the system to be operated in a totally manual, i.e. overriding mode. All treatment settings are available for adjustment when the physician card is inserted.

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First Claim