Personalized health history system with accommodation for consumer health terminology

• US 20040044548A1
• Filed: 09/03/2003
• Published: 03/04/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 02/24/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: WebMD LLC (WebMD Health Corporation)
• Original Assignee: WebMD LLC (WebMD Health Corporation)
• Inventors: Rozen, Michael J., Bowman, Bradley R., Marshall, Philip D.
• Granted Patent: US 8,612,245 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/2
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 10/60 for patient-specific data, e.g. for electronic patient records
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 50/70 for mining of medical data, e.g. analysing previous cases of other patients
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 70/60 relating to pathologies

Abstract

Personalization of access to health-related information on a computer network is provided based upon a health history of a user. In one implementation, personal health-related information about the user is obtaining from the user operating a client computer. The health-related information includes one or more health-related terms that each corresponds to a health-related concept. The health related terms provided by the user are correlated with a health terminology thesaurus that is stored on a computer-readable medium, such as at a server remote from the user client. Each of the health-related terms is associated with a single concept unique identifier that uniquely identifies a corresponding health-related concept. Health-related works or content is made accessible over the computer network by correlating the concept unique identifiers for the user'"'"'s health information with corresponding concept unique identifiers that are associated with the health-related content.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method of personalizing a health history of a user, comprising:

obtaining from the user personal health-related information about the user, the health-related information including one or more health-related terms that each corresponds to a health-related concept; and

correlating with a health terminology thesaurus each of the one or more health-related terms with a single concept unique identifier that uniquely identifies a corresponding health-related concept, each concept unique identifier having associated with it one or more terms corresponding to a common health-related concept, ones of the terms being lay medical terms and not clinical medical terms.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

identifying health-related content that is accessible over a computer network and that has associated with it the concept unique identifier of at least one of the health-related terms obtained from the user; and

providing to the user computer network access to the health-related content.

3. The method of claim 2 in which providing to the user computer network access to the health-related content includes providing the user a computer network link or address to the health-related content.

4. The method of claim 2 in which the computer network access to the health-related content is pushed to the user without a specific request by the user for the content.

5. The method of claim 2 in which the computer network access to the health-related content is provided to the user in response to a specific request by the user for the content.

6. The method of claim 2 in which the health-related content has associated with it a logical combination of plural concept unique identifiers.

7. The method of claim 6 in which the logical combination of plural concept unique identifiers includes a logical exclusion of at least one concept unique identifier.

8. The method of claim 1 in which computer implementation of the method employs a client computer and a server computer that are interconnected by a computer network, the method further comprising:

providing at the client computer a user interface with which the user provides the personal health-related information;

transmitting the personal health-related information over the computer network to the server computer, the server computer storing the health terminology thesaurus; and

correlating each of the one or more health-related terms with a single concept unique identifier at the server computer.

9. The method of claim 8 in which the computer network includes the Internet.

10. The method of claim 8 in which providing the user interface includes providing a health information terminology wizard that includes a health information entry pane in which the user is prompted to enter personal health information and a health terminology pane in which is rendered one or more health terms having associated concept unique identifiers and that relate to the personal health information entered into the health information entry pane.

11. The method of claim 10 in which the health information terminology wizard further includes a definitions pane in which text definitions are provided for selected health terms rendered in the health terminology pane.

12. In a computer-readable medium, computer software for personalizing a health history of a user, comprising:

software for obtaining from the user personal health-related information about the user, the health-related information including one or more health-related terms that each corresponds to a health-related concept; and

software for correlating with a health terminology thesaurus each of the one or more health-related terms with a single concept unique identifier that uniquely identifies a corresponding health-related concept, each concept unique identifier having associated with it one or more terms corresponding to a common health-related concept, ones of the terms being lay medical terms and not clinical medical terms.

13. The medium of claim 12 further comprising:

software for identifying health-related content that is accessible over a computer network and that has associated with it the concept unique identifier of at least one of the health-related terms obtained from the user; and

software for providing to the user computer network access to the health-related content.

14. The medium of claim 13 in which the software for providing to the user computer network access to the health-related content includes software for providing the user a computer network link or address to the health-related content.

15. The medium of claim 13 in which the computer network access to the health-related content is pushed to the user without a specific request by the user for the content.

16. The medium of claim 13 in which the computer network access to the health-related content is provided to the user in response to a specific request by the user for the content.

17. The medium of claim 13 in which the health-related content has associated with it a logical combination of plural concept unique identifiers.

18. The medium of claim 17 in which the logical combination of plural concept unique identifiers includes a logical exclusion of at least one concept unique identifier.

19. The medium of claim 12 in which one portion of the medium is in a client computer and another portion of the medium is in a server computer that is interconnected with the client computer by a computer network, further comprising:

software for providing at the client computer a user interface with which the user provides the personal health-related information;

software for transmitting the personal health-related information over the computer network to the server computer, the server computer storing the health terminology thesaurus; and

software for correlating each of the one or more health-related terms with a single concept unique identifier at the server computer.

20. The medium of claim 19 in which the computer network includes the Internet.

21. The medium of claim 19 in which the software for providing the user interface includes software for providing a health information terminology wizard that includes a health information entry pane in which the user is prompted to enter personal health information and a health terminology pane in which is rendered one or more health terms having associated concept unique identifiers and that relate to the personal health information entered into the health information entry pane.

22. The medium of claim 21 in which the health information terminology wizard further includes a definitions pane in which text definitions are provided for selected health terms rendered in the health terminology pane.

23. In a computer-readable medium, a data structure, comprising:

one or more health-related terms corresponding to a common health-related concept; and

a single concept unique indentifier for identifying the common health-related concept.

24. The data structure of claim 23 in which one or more of the health-related terms are lay medical terms and not clinical medical terms.

25. The data structure of claim 23 in which the concept unique identifier includes numeric characters.

26. The data structure of claim 23 in which the concept unique identifier includes alpha-numeric characters.

27. The data structure of claim 26 in which one or more of the health-related terms are lay medical terms and not clinical medical terms.

28. In a computer-readable medium, computer software for personalizing a health history of a user, comprising:

health terminology thesaurus software that associates each of one or more health-related terms with-a single concept unique identifier that uniquely identifies a corresponding common health-related concept, ones of the terms being lay medical terms and not clinical medical terms; and

software for correlating one or more health-related terms relating to a user'"'"'s health with corresponding concept unique identifiers in the health terminology thesaurus software.

29. The medium of claim 28 further comprising:

health-related content indicating software that indicates for plural health-related works that are accessible over a computer network one or more concept unique identifiers that uniquely identify health-related concepts addressed by the works; and

software for correlating the one or more concept unique identifiers corresponding to the one or more health-related terms relating to the user'"'"'s health with one or more health-related works having concept unique identifiers that are the same as those of the health-related terms relating to the user'"'"'s health.