SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR IMPROVING PATIENT COMPLIANCE WITH A PRESCRIPTION DRUG REGIMEN

• US 20070174092A1
• Filed: 12/15/2006
• Published: 07/26/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 12/17/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microhealth, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Connecptus, LLC
• Inventors: Lara, Marcos, Lara, Miguel, Rodriguez-Esteban, Ravl, Lopez, Alberto
• Granted Patent: US 9,015,054 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/3
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 19/00 Teaching not covered by other main groups of this subclass teaching or practice apparatus for gun-aiming or gun-laying F41G3/26
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 10/60 for patient-specific data, e.g. for electronic patient records
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 20/10 relating to drugs or medications, e.g. for ensuring correct administration to patients

Abstract

A system for improving patient compliance with a prescription drug regimen is described. The system includes a patient database for storing patient information, the information including contact information for a patient communication device (such as a telephone, cell phone, computer, or PDA) along with a method for communicating with that device. The system further includes an alert database for storing information about prescription reminder alerts to be sent to patients. A send program running on a computer retrieves information about prescription reminder alerts from the alert database and transmits the prescription reminder alerts to a patient communications device over a communications network using the contact information and contact method stored in the patient database.

Claims

1. A method for improving patient compliance with a prescription drug:

regimen comprising;

retrieving information for a registered patient stored in one or more databases, said one or more databases storing information associated with the registered patient including contact information for a communication device associated with the registered patient, said contact information including a method for contacting the communication device associated with the registered patient;

configuring prescription reminder alerts to be sent to the communication device associated with the registered patient, wherein said configuring step includes storing data associated with the prescription reminder alerts, said prescription reminder alerts configured to be sent at times determinable in part from the stored data associated with the prescription reminder alerts;

activating the prescription reminder alerts, wherein the activating step includes setting a prescription reminder activation time; and

transmitting the prescription reminder alerts to the communication device associated with the registered patient, said transmission occurring using the contact information for the communications device and according to the method for contacting the communications device, the transmitting step occurring at the times determined from the data associated with the prescription reminder alerts and the prescription reminder alerts activation time.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

storing opt-in information associated with the registered patient, wherein said opt-in information indicates whether the registered patient has consented to receive prescription reminder alerts; and

retrieving the opt-in information associated with the registered patient and preventing the transmission of prescription reminder alerts to the registered patient if said opt-in information associated with the patient cannot be retrieved.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining whether the registered patient satisfies criteria for sponsorship by a sponsor based on the information associated with the registered patient stored in one or more databases; and

billing the sponsor for the prescription reminder alerts sent to the patient if the patient satisfies the criteria for sponsorship by the sponsor.

4. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

providing a plurality of templates for configuration prescription reminder alerts, each of said templates specifically adapted to create at least one alert based for a specified prescription type.

5. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

receiving at least one feedback message from the communications device associated with the registered patient;

comparing said at least one feedback message to a set of pre-defined feedback message templates to locate a feedback message template that matches the format of the at least one feedback message; and

executing at least one action defined in the matching feedback message template.

6. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

collecting information about prescription reminder alerts sent to a patient during a specified period of time;

collecting information about feedback messages received from the patient during the specified period of time; and

performing at least one query on the information collected about prescription reminder alerts sent to the patient and the information about feedback messages received from the patient, said query returning a set of results.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

performing at least one statistical or mathematical analysis on the set of results returned by the query.

8. The method of claim 6 further comprising:

performing at least one statistical or mathematical analysis, said statistical or mathematical analysis taking as input the set of results returned by the query.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

comparing an event notification associated with the registered patient to a set of incentive definitions, wherein each of said incentive definitions includes event parameters defining an event, wherein the comparing step determines whether the event notification matches the event parameters defined in one or more of the incentive definitions; and

sending an incentive verification to an incentive provider for each matching incentive definition the contents of the incentive verification determinable from the contents of the event notification and the incentive definition.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the event notification is generated in response to the configuration of at least one prescription reminder alert.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein the event notification is generated in response to a patient obtaining a refill of a prescription.

12. A system for improving patient compliance with a prescription drug regimen, comprising:

a computer including a central processing unit;

a communications network for transmitting messages;

a patient database for storing information about a plurality of patients registered with a prescription reminder service, said information including contact information for at least one communications device associated with each of the plurality of patients, said contact information including a method for sending messages to the communications device;

an alert database for storing a plurality of prescription reminder alerts, wherein each of said plurality of prescription reminder alerts is associated with a patient and wherein each of said prescription reminder alerts includes information to determine a specific time to transmit each of said prescription reminder alerts; and

a send program running on said computer, said send program configured to retrieve information about each of said prescription reminder alerts from the alert database and to transmit each of said prescription reminder alerts over the communications network to the communications device associated with each of the plurality of patients.

13. The system of claim 12, further comprising:

an opt-in database for storing opt-in information associated with the plurality of patients, wherein said opt-in information indicates that each of the plurality of patients has consented to receive prescription reminder alerts, wherein the send program will not transmit a prescription reminder to a communications device associated with one of the plurality of patients unless opt-in information associated with the one of the plurality of patients is present in the opt-in database.

14. The system of claim 12, further comprising:

a feedback definition database for storing a plurality of feedback message templates, wherein each of the plurality of feedback message template includes information sufficient to describe a feedback message and at least one action to be executed upon receipt of a matching feedback message; and

a feedback program running on said computer, said feedback program configured to receive a feedback message from a communications device, to compare said feedback message to the plurality of feedback message templates in the feedback definition database, and to execute the at least one action associated with each feedback template that matches the feedback message.

15. The system of claim 12 further comprising:

a performance database for storing information associated with a plurality of patients, including information about prescription reminder alerts sent to said plurality of patients and feedback messages received from said plurality of patients; and

a performance measurement program running on said computer, said performance measurement program configured to query the performance database, wherein the query returns data from the performance database, and performs a mathematical or statistical analysis on the data returned from the performance database.

16. The system of claim 12, further comprising:

an incentive definition database for storing a plurality of incentive definitions, wherein each of the plurality of incentive definitions includes an incentive event description and information about an incentive verification wherein said incentive verification is to be sent upon receipt of an event notification matching said incentive event description; and

an incentive program running on said computer configured to receive an event notification, compare said event notification with the incentive event description in each of the plurality of incentive definitions in the incentive database, and to send the incentive verification from each incentive definition that contains an incentive event description that matches the event notification.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein at least one incentive definition in the incentive database contains an incentive event description that matches an event notification generated when a specified prescription reminder alert is added to the alert database.

18. The system of claim 16, wherein at least one incentive definition in the incentive database contains an incentive event description that matches an event notification generated when the patient refills a prescription.

19. A system for improving patient compliance with a prescription drug regimen, comprising:

a computer including a processor, a display device, and an input device;

a communications network for transmitting messages;

a registration program running on said computer, said registration program collecting information associated with a patient, said information including contact information for a communications device associated with said patient, including a method for transmitting information to that communications device, and configured to transmit said information associated with said patient over the communications network to a database for storing said information;

an alert setup program running on said computer, said alert setup program configured to collect information about at least one prescription reminder alert and transmit said information over the communications network to a database for storing said information.

20. The system of claim 19, the alert setup program further comprising a plurality of templates, each of said templates adapted to collect information associated with a specific prescription type and to automatically generate information associated with at least one prescription reminder alert.