Systems and methods for facilitating health research using a personal wearable device with research mode

• US 10,460,834 B2
• Filed: 05/24/2018
• Issued: 10/29/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 05/30/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Johnson, Timothy M.
• Primary Examiner(s): Edun, Muhammad N
• Assistant Examiner(s): Murphy, Jerold B
• Application Number:
  US15/988,927
• Publication Number:
  US 20180277239A1
• Time in Patent Office: 523 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 10/20 for electronic clinical trials or questionnaires
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 10/60 for patient-specific data, e.g. for electronic patient records
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/63 for local operation
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/67 for remote operation
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 50/70 for mining of medical data, e.g. analysing previous cases of other patients
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/80 Services using short range communication, e.g. near-field communication [NFC], radio-frequency identification [RFID] or low energy communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/10 Connection setup
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/11 Allocation or use of connection identifiers
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/18 Self-organising networks, e.g. ad-hoc networks or sensor networks

Abstract

Methods and systems for facilitating health research by utilizing one or more wearable sensor devices with a research mode are provided herein. Systems include a wearable sensor device that can pair with a first portable computing device of a user and a second computing device of a researcher in a first and second pairing, respectively. The wearable sensor device obtains one or more health parameters of a user. In one aspect, the wearable sensor device communicates research related and non-research related health information to the first computing device via the first pairing link and communicates only research related health information to the second computing device via the second pairing link. Methods for pairing one or more wearable sensor devices with one or more research computing devices and switching between operating modes to provide additional research related features are also provided.

Claims

1. A wearable device having an associated user ID, the device comprising:

one or more sensors adapted for detecting one or more health parameters of a user when the device is worn by the user;

a wireless communication link adapted for near field/local communication with one or more computing devices including communications for pairing with the one or more computing devices and communications for transmitting one or more health parameters to the one or more computing devices;

user interface for receiving user input and for outputting information indications; and

a control unit for controlling operation of the wearable device in differing modes including;

a standard mode in which the wearable device pairs and communicates with at least one computing device associated with the user ID when within a wireless communication range of the at least one computing device to facilitate communication of a plurality of health data comprising detections of the one or more health parameters obtained from the one or more sensors, and

a health research mode in which the wearable device communicates by secure authenticated communication with at least one other computing device associated with a third party ID associated with a health researcher of a health research study in which the user is a participant, wherein in the health research mode, the wearable device communicates a first set of health data of the plurality of health data that is relevant to the health research study, wherein the communication of the first set of health data is pre-authorized by the user.

2. The wearable device of claim 1, wherein the information indications comprise any of audio, visual, tactile or any combination thereof.

3. The wearable device of claim 1, wherein the third party IDs are associated with one or more health researchers.

4. The wearable device of claim 1, wherein the at least one other computing device comprises a plurality of computing devices associated with one or more third party IDS of one or more health researchers.

5. The wearable device of claim 1, wherein in the standard mode, the device pairs and communicates only with the at least one computing device associated with the user ID.

6. The wearable device of claim 1, wherein:

in the standard mode, the device communicates health research data and non-research data with the at least one computing device associated with the user ID , and

wherein in the health research mode, the device communicates only research data to the at least one other computing devices associated with the third party ID.

7. The wearable device of claim 1, wherein, in the standard mode, the device is paired with the at least one computing device associated with the user ID, and in the health research mode, the device is concurrently paired with both the at least one computing device associated with the user ID and the at least one other computing devices associated with a third party ID.

8. The wearable device of claim 1, wherein in the standard mode, the wearable device pairs with the at least one computing device in a first pairing, and in the health research mode, the wearable device pairs with the at least one other computing device in a second pairing that is separate from the first pairing.

9. The wearable device of claim 1, wherein the device is configured such that pairing creates and/or exchanges a passkey between paired devices such that subsequent communications between paired devices are authenticated automatically.

10. The wearable device of claim 1, wherein the device communicates a research mode status to the user via the user interface.

11. The wearable device of claim 10, wherein the wearable device broadcasts the health research mode status to the third party and allows pairing with the at least one other computing device.

12. The wearable device of claim 1, wherein communication of the one or more health parameters locally to the at least one other computing device in a subsequent session requires a separate opt-in and/or authorization from the user received via the user input of the wearable device.

13. The wearable device of claim 1, wherein the device communicates instructions to the at least one computing device associated with the user ID to place the at least one computing device associated with the user ID into the health research mode while one or more non-health-research related applications operating on the at least one computing device are suspended.

14. The wearable device of claim 1, wherein in the health research mode, communication of the one or more health parameters occurs locally to the at least one other computing device in a single session.

15. The wearable device of claim 1, wherein the at least one other computing device comprises multiple computing devices associated with one or more third party IDs, and wherein the wearable device communicates at least some of the one or more health parameters to any of the multiple computing devices associated with the one or more third party IDs.

16. The wearable device of claim 1, wherein the control unit further comprises:

an association mode in which the device associates with one or more other wearable devices are detected by the wearable device in close proximity.

17. The wearable device of claim 1, further comprising:

a web interface module wherein in the health research mode the device is configured to interface with a web front-end accessible from the at least one other computing device associated with a third party ID.

18. The wearable device of claim 1, further comprising:

an adjacent device detector, wherein in the health research mode, is configured to detect another wearable device bumping or adjacent with the wearable device, wherein upon detecting the other wearable device, the control unit effects an automatic transfer of identification data from the wearable device to the other wearable device so as to facilitate swapping out of the wearable device with the other wearable device, wherein the transfer is automatic or in response to a user input.

19. A wearable device having an associated user ID comprising:

one or more sensors adapted for detecting one or more user health parameters while the device is being worn by a user;

a wireless communication link adapted for near/local communication with multiple non-wearable computing devices including communications for pairing with each of the multiple computing devices and communications for transmitting one or more health parameters including at least one of health research data and non-health-research data;

a user interface for receiving user input and for outputting health information indications; and

a control unit for controlling operation of the device between differing modes of operation including;

a standard mode in which the device communicates health research data and non-research data, and

a health research mode in which the device communicates only health research data relevant to a health research study in which the user is a participant.

20. A method for facilitating a health research study using a wearable device having one or more sensors for detecting health parameters of a user when worn, the method comprising:

switching the wearable device from a standard mode of operation to a health research mode of operation, wherein in the standard mode the wearable device is paired with a personal computing device associated with a user ID of the user and locally communicates a plurality of health information of the user to the personal computing device associated with the user ID;

while in the health research mode, communicating by secure authenticated communication with at least one other computing device associated with a third party ID of a health researcher; and

while in the health research mode, locally communicating at least some of the plurality of health data to the at least one other computing device associated with the third party ID, wherein the communication of the at least some of the plurality of health data is pre-authorized by the user for health research.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein in the standard mode, communicating with the at least one other computing device is disabled.

22. The method of claim 20, wherein switching between the standard mode and the health research mode is effected in response to a user input received on a user interface of the wearable device.

23. The method of claim 22, further comprising:

providing to a user, on the user interface of the device, an indicator of mode status.

24. The method of claim 23, wherein the wearable device broadcasts the health research mode status to the third party, and allow to be paired with those device.

25. The method of claim 20, wherein the plurality of health information includes both health research related data and non- health-research related data and wherein the at least some of the plurality of health data includes only research related data.

26. The method of claim 20, wherein, in the standard mode, the device is paired with the at least one computing device associated with the user ID, and in the health research mode, the device is concurrently paired with both the at least one computing device associated with the user ID and the at least one other computing devices associated with the third party ID.

27. The method of claim 20, further comprising:

when in the health research mode, outputting an identification and/or subject locating output in response to a locating request from the at least one other computing device associated with the third party ID.

28. The method of claim 27, wherein the identification and/or subject locating output comprises outputting any of an ID, a subject name, a location, an image, and an audible sound to one or both of the wearable device and the at least one other computing device associated with the third party ID.

29. A wearable device comprising:

one or more sensors adapted for detecting one or more health parameters of a user while the device is worn by the user;

a user interface for presenting health data indications to a user and for receiving user input;

a wireless communication link adapted for communication with multiple computing devices;

a control module that controls;

detection of the one or more health parameters and wireless communication with each of the multiple computing devices,

pairing with each of the multiple computing devices; and

communication of a plurality of health data that includes detections of the one or more health parameters obtained with the one or more sensors to each of the multiple computing devices, wherein the communication includes communication of a first set of health data to a health research computing device that includes a unique health research participant ID associated with the first set of data for use in a research study in which the user is a participant, wherein the first set of health data comprises at least some of the plurality of health data relevant to the health study and the communication is pre-authorized by the user for health research purposes.

30. The device of claim 29, wherein the communication includes communication of a second set of data to a personal computing device of the user that does not include the participant ID.

31. The device of claim 29, wherein the unique participant ID is provided with the first set of data without identifying the user.