National addictions vigilance, intervention and prevention program

• US 20070213998A1
• Filed: 12/27/2006
• Published: 09/13/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 12/29/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Flexx Acquisition, LLC
• Original Assignee: Inflexxion, Inc. (Integrated Behavioral Health, Inc.)
• Inventors: Villapiano, Albert, Katz, Nathaniel, Budman, Simon, Butler, Stephen
• Granted Patent: US 8,214,228 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/1.100
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/063 Operations research, analysis or management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 99/00 Subject matter not provided for in other groups of this subclass
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 10/20 for electronic clinical trials or questionnaires
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 70/40 relating to drugs, e.g. their side effects or intended usage

Abstract

A substance abuse surveillance system comprising a source of respondent responses to a self-administered virtual interview and a data collector coupled to receive from the source multiple respondent responses and analyzing the same in near real-time to form current substance abuse data, the data collector allowing access to the current substance abuse data by third parties. The data collector is coupled to the source in a manner enabling delay-free, continuous feed of the respondent responses.

Claims

1. A survey system comprising:

a source of respondent responses to a self-administered virtual interview regarding a vertical market; and

a data collector coupled to receive from the source multiple respondent responses and analyzing the same in near real-time to form data on the vertical market, the data collector allowing access to the data by third parties, wherein the data collector is coupled to the source in a manner enabling delay-free, continuous feed of the respondent responses.

2. The survey system of claim 1, wherein the vertical market is public health.

3. The survey system of claim 2, wherein the vertical market relates to a substance abuse surveillance system.

4. The survey system of claim 1 further including an interview publishing system that enables a non-technical/non-software personnel to modify or update the contents of the self-administered virtual interview.

5. The survey system of claim 4, wherein the interview publishing system further dynamically formulates and provides questions to the self-administered virtual interview.

6. The survey system of claim 1, wherein the self-administered virtual interview is conducted in a non-English language.

7. The survey system of claim 1, wherein the non-English language includes Spanish, Cantonese and Mandarin.

8. A substance abuse surveillance system comprising:

a source of respondent responses to a self-administered virtual interview; and

a data collector coupled to receive from the source multiple respondent responses and analyzing the same in near real-time to form current substance abuse data, the data collector allowing access to the current substance abuse data by third parties, wherein the data collector is coupled to the source in a manner enabling delay-free, continuous feed of the respondent responses.

The substance abuse surveillance system of claim 1, wherein the real-time analysis is processed at an on-site location of the self-administered virtual interview.

9. The survey system of claim 8, wherein the self-administered virtual interview is conducted in a non-English language.

10. The substance abuse surveillance system of claim 8, wherein the on-site location and the data collector communicates to each other via a global computer network.

11. The survey system of claim 8 further including an interview publishing system that enables a non-technical/non-software personnel to modify or update the contents of the self-administered virtual interview.

12. The survey system of claim 11, wherein the interview publishing system further dynamically formulates and provides questions to the self-administered virtual interview.

13. The substance abuse surveillance system of claim 12, wherein the dynamically formulated and provided questions include pharmaceutical product specific questions.

14. The substance abuse surveillance system of claim 8, wherein the self-administered virtual interview includes a built-in decision logic.

15. The substance abuse surveillance system of claim 14, wherein one or more questions of the self-administered virtual interview can be skipped depending on responses to other questions.

16. The substance abuse surveillance system of claim 14, wherein the decision-logic can be modified according a predetermined parameter and be downloaded from the data collector.

17. The substance abuse surveillance system of claim 16, wherein the predetermined parameter is established dependent on one or more of the following:

alcohol use, drug use, medical problems, psychiatric history, family and social history, legal problems, employment history, an identity of the one or more substance products, and a source of the one or more substance products.

18. The substance abuse surveillance system of claim 8, which the near real time analysis includes summary scores representing problem severity that are generated at the end of the self-administered virtual interview.

19. The substance abuse surveillance system of claim 8, wherein the source is two or more sites enabling the self-administered virtual interview.

20. The substance abuse surveillance system of claim 19, wherein the current substance abuse data indicates trends and rates of substance abuse in a geographical area.

21. The substance abuse surveillance system of claim 8, wherein the self-administered virtual interview includes multimedia and interactive media.

22. The substance abuse surveillance system of claim 21, wherein the respondent is illiterate.

23. The substance abuse surveillance system of claim 8, wherein the self-administered virtual interview is conducted in a non-English language.

24. The substance abuse surveillance system of claim 23, wherein the non-English language includes Spanish, Cantonese and Mandarin.

25. The substance abuse surveillance system of claim 8, wherein the self-administered virtual interview includes questions on one or more following subject matters:

alcohol use, drug use, medical problems, psychiatric history, family and social history, legal problems, employment history, an identity of the one or more substance products, and a source of the one or more substance products. The substance abuse surveillance system of claim 1, wherein the self-administered virtual interview is directed to adolescents.

26. A substance abuse surveillance system comprising:

an interactive medium configured to provide a self-administered virtual interview for obtaining information on a respondent'"'"'s experience with one or more substances; and

a data collector in electronic communication with the interactive medium and configured to receive and analyze the information in near real-time to generate current substance abuse data.

27. The substance abuse surveillance system of claim 26, wherein the near real-time analysis is processed at an on-site location of the self-administered virtual interview.

28. The substance abuse surveillance system of claim 27, wherein the on-site location and the data collector communication to each other via a global computer network.

29. The survey system of claim 26 further including an interview publishing system that enables a non technical/software personnel to modify or update the contents of the self-administered virtual interview.

30. The survey system of claim 29, wherein the interview publishing system further dynamically formulates and provides questions to the self-administered virtual interview.

31. The substance abuse surveillance system of claim 30, wherein the dynamically formulated and provided questions include pharmaceutical product specific questions.

32. The substance abuse surveillance system of claim 26, wherein the self-administered virtual interview includes a built-in decision logic.

33. The substance abuse surveillance system of claim 32, wherein one or more questions of the self-administered virtual interview can be skipped depending on responses to other questions.

34. The substance abuse surveillance system of claim 32, wherein the decision-logic can be downloaded from the data collector can be modified according a predetermined parameter.

35. The substance abuse surveillance system of claim 34, wherein the predetermined parameter is established dependent on one or more of the following:

alcohol use, drug use, medical problems, psychiatric history, family and social history, legal problems, employment history, an identity of the one or more substance products, and a source of the one or more substance products.

36. The substance abuse surveillance system of claim 26, wherein the near real time analysis includes summary scores representing problem severity that are generated at the end of the self-administered virtual interview.

37. The substance abuse surveillance system of claim 26, wherein the data collector can receive the current substance abuse data from two or more sites that enables the self-administered virtual interview.

38. The substance abuse surveillance system of claim 37, wherein the current substance abuse data indicates trends and rates of substance abuse in a geographical area.

39. The substance abuse surveillance system of claim 26, wherein the self-administered virtual interview includes multimedia and interactive media.

40. The substance abuse surveillance system of claim 39, wherein the respondent is illiterate.

41. The substance abuse surveillance system of claim 26, wherein the self-administered virtual interview is conducted in a non-English language.

42. The substance abuse surveillance system of claim 41, wherein the non-English language includes Spanish, Cantonese and Mandarin.

43. The substance abuse surveillance system of claim 26, wherein the self-administered virtual interview includes questions on one or more following subject matters:

alcohol use, drug use, medical problems, psychiatric history, family and social history, legal problems, employment history, an identity of the one or more substance products, and a source of the one or more substance products.

44. The substance abuse surveillance system of claim 26, wherein the self-administered virtual interview is directed to adolescents.

45. A method for obtaining data on substance abuse, comprising the steps of:

receiving respondent responses to self-administered virtual interviews, each self-administered virtual interview regarding a respective respondent'"'"'s experience with one or more substances; and

in near real-time, analyzing the received respondent responses and forming current substance abuse data.

46. The method of claim 45, wherein the step of analyzing the received respondent responses and forming current substance abuse data includes generating a respective summary scores representing problem severity for each self-administered virtual interview at the end of the interview.

47. The method of claim 45, wherein the step of analyzing the received respondent responses and forming current substance abuse data includes sending the analysis to a data collector via a global computer network.

48. The method of claim 45, wherein the global computer network includes an interview publishing system, the interview publishing system configured to dynamically formulate and provide questions to the self-administered virtual interviews.

49. The method of claim 48, wherein the dynamically formulated and provided questions include product specific questions.

50. The method of claim 45, wherein each self-administered virtual interviews include a built-in decision logic.

51. The method of claim 50, wherein one or more questions of the self-administered virtual interviews can be skipped depending on responses to other questions.

52. The method of claim 45 further including the step of downloading the decision-logic can be downloaded from a server and modifying the self-administered virtual interviews according a predetermined parameter.

53. The method of claim 52, wherein the predetermined parameter is established dependent on one or more of the following:

alcohol use, drug use, medical problems, psychiatric history, family and social history, legal problems, employment history, an identity of the one or more substance products, and a source of the one or more substance products.

54. The method of claim 45, wherein the self-administered virtual interview includes multimedia and interactive media.

55. The method of claim 54, wherein a respective respondent is illiterate.

56. The method of claim 45, wherein the self-administered virtual interviews are conducted in a non-English language.

57. The method of claim 56, wherein the non-English language includes Spanish, Cantonese and Mandarin.

58. The method of claim 45, wherein the self-administered virtual interviews include questions on one or more following subject matters:

alcohol use, drug use, medical problems, psychiatric history, family and social history, legal problems, employment history, an identity of the one or more substance products, and a source of the one or more substance products.

59. The method of claim 45, wherein the self-administered virtual interviews are directed to adolescents.

60. A method for obtaining data on substance abuse, comprising the step of:

receiving near real-time analysis based respondent responses regarding one or more substances in self-administered virtual interview via a global computer network from a site of the self-administered virtual interview.

61. The method of claim 60 further including the step of receiving the real-time analysis from multiple sites.

62. The method of claim 61 further including processing the real-time analysis from the multiple sites for obtaining the data of substance abuse in a geographic area.

63. A computer program product, comprising:

a) a computer usable medium; and

b) a set of computer program instructions embodied on the computer useable medium for forming current substance abuse data, the instructions when executed by a computer causing the computer to;

receive respondent responses to self-administered virtual interviews, each virtual interview regarding each respective respondent'"'"'s experience with one or more substances; and

in near real-time, analyze the received respondent responses and forming current substance abuse data.

64. The computer program product of claim 63, wherein the computer program instructions further comprising an interactive media for conducting a self-administered virtual interview on the respondent'"'"'s experience with one or more substances, the interactive media conducting the self-administered virtual interview via a global computer network.

65. The computer program product of claim 63, wherein at least some portion of the computer program instructions include instructions to request data or request instructions over a telecommunications network.

66. The computer program product of claim 63, wherein at least some portion of the computer program is transmitted over a global network.

67. The computer program product of claim 63, wherein the computer usable medium includes a removable storage medium.

68. The computer program product of claim 63, wherein the removable storage medium includes any of a CD-ROM, a DVD-ROM, a diskette, and a tape.

69. A computer system for obtaining data on substance abuse, the computer system comprising:

a) an input means for conducting a self-administered virtual interview regarding a respondent'"'"'s experience with one or more substances, the input means using an interactive media;

b) digital processor means coupled to the input means for receiving respondent responses from the self-administered virtual interview and for analyzing the respondent responses in near real-time forming current substance abuse data; and

c) an output means coupled to the digital processor means and for enabling third party to access to the current substance abuse data.