Methods, systems, and computer program products for aggregating medical information

• US 20080139890A1
• Filed: 10/17/2006
• Published: 06/12/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 10/17/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Craine, Ari, Tischer, Steven, Reeves, Jonathan
• Granted Patent: US 8,684,923 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 600/300
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/63 for local operation
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/67 for remote operation
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 50/80 for detecting, monitoring or modelling epidemics or pandemics, e.g. flu

Abstract

A method of aggregating medical information can include receiving, at a remote aggregation system, individual syndromes collected by mobile personal medical devices associated with respective bodies as the mobile personal medical devices move within an environment, aggregating the individual syndromes at the remote aggregation system, and determining whether an environmental syndrome exists for at least some of the individual syndromes. Related systems and computer program products are also disclosed.

Claims

1. A method of aggregating medical information comprising:

receiving, at a remote aggregation system, individual syndromes collected by mobile personal medical devices associated with respective bodies as the mobile personal medical devices move within an environment;

aggregating the individual syndromes at the remote aggregation system; and

determining whether an environmental syndrome exists for at least some of the individual syndromes.

2. A method according to claim 1 wherein aggregating comprises comparing the individual syndromes to determine whether a similarity exists therebetween.

3. A method according to claim 1 wherein further comprising:

transmitting an alert to at least one of the mobile personal medical devices associated with the respective bodies.

4. A method according to claim 1 wherein further comprising:

transmitting an alert to at least one mobile personal medical device that did not forward a syndrome to the remote aggregation system.

5. A method according to claim 1 wherein the individual syndromes are collected anonymously.

6. A method according to claim 1 wherein the environmental syndrome comprises one of a plurality of hierarchically related environments, the method further comprising:

forwarding selected ones of the individual syndromes to a higher level aggregation system responsive to determining that the selected ones of the individual syndromes match at least one predetermined criteria.

7. A method according to claim 6 further comprising:

transmitting a broadcast message to other mobile personal medical devices to enable transmission of medical information to the remote aggregation system.

8. A method according to claim 7 wherein the other mobile personal medical devices are identified based on geographic location data or proximity information relative to at least one of the mobile personal medical devices reporting syndromes to the remote aggregation system.

9. A method according to claim 1 wherein receiving comprises receiving the individual syndromes with an identifier that identifies the respective mobile personal medical device from which the syndrome was received, the method further comprising:

accessing a persistent long-term storage device using the identifier that identifies the respective mobile personal medical device to retrieve medical information associated with the body.

10. A method according to claim 9 further comprising:

transmitting a broadcast message including respective keys obtained from the persistent long-term storage device to other mobile personal medical devices to enable transmission of medical information from the other mobile personal medical devices to the remote aggregation system.

11. A method according to claim 1 wherein determining whether an environmental syndrome exists for at least some of the individual syndromes comprises:

comparing a number of syndromes included in the individual syndromes that match at least one predetermined environmental syndrome threshold.

12. A method according to claim 10 further comprising:

transmitting an update message to the other mobile personal medical devices to record the syndrome event therein.

13. A method according to claim 1 further comprising:

receiving environmental information at the remote aggregation system that outside that transmitted by the mobile personal medical devices.

14. A method according to claim 1 wherein the individual syndromes collected by mobile personal medical devices associated with respective bodies are collected by sensors configured to actively or passively communicate with the mobile personal medical devices as the devices become proximate to the sensors.

15. A system for aggregating medical information comprising:

a processor circuit configured to receive individual syndromes collected by mobile personal medical devices associated with respective bodies as the mobile personal medical devices move within an environment and configured to aggregate the individual syndromes at the remote aggregation system and configured to determine whether an environmental syndrome exists for at least some of the individual syndromes.

16. A system according to claim 15 wherein the environmental syndrome comprises one of a plurality of hierarchically related environments, wherein the processor circuit is further configured to forward selected ones of the individual syndromes to a higher level aggregation system responsive to determining that the selected ones of the individual syndromes match at least one predetermined criteria.

17. A system according to claim 16 wherein the processor circuit is further configured to transmit a broadcast message to other mobile personal medical devices to enable transmission of medical information to the remote aggregation system.

18. A system according to claim 17 wherein the other mobile personal medical devices are identified based on geographic location data or proximity information relative to at least one of the mobile personal medical devices reporting syndromes to the remote aggregation system.

19. A system according to claim 17 wherein the processor circuit is further configured to receive the individual syndromes with an identifier that identifies the respective mobile personal medical device from which the syndrome was received, wherein the processor circuit is further configured to access a persistent long-term storage device using the identifier that identifies the respective mobile personal medical device to retrieve medical information associated with the body.

20. A computer program product for aggregating medical information comprising:

a computer readable medium having computer readable program code embodied therein, the computer readable program product comprising;

computer readable program code configured to receive individual syndromes collected by mobile personal medical-devices associated with respective bodies as the mobile personal medical devices move within an environment;

computer readable program code configured to aggregate the individual syndromes at the remote aggregation system; and

computer readable program code configured to determine whether an environmental syndrome exists for at least some of the individual syndromes.