METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR ONLINE HEALTH MONITORING

• US 20080139947A1
• Filed: 07/16/2007
• Published: 06/12/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 10/15/1999
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: UE Systems Inc.
• Original Assignee: U-E Systems Incorporated
• Inventors: O'Hanlon, Terrence J., Bandes, Alan S., Goodman, Mark A., Osterer, Michael F.
• Granted Patent: US 8,255,240 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 600/481
• 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 50/30 for calculating health indices; for individual health risk assessment
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 50/70 for mining of medical data, e.g. analysing previous cases of other patients

Abstract

Methods for providing online health monitoring and accumulating data from patients worldwide, and accompanying apparatus for using the same, are disclosed. Such monitoring is particularly useful for both diagnosing and prescribing preventive medical treatment, and is particularly suited for the field of cardiovascular health care. Preferred methods and devices include using a sensitive acoustic device, such as an electret, to analyze a patient'"'"'s cardiovascular functions from a location such as a public computer kiosk, a doctor'"'"'s office or a patient'"'"'s home computer. The data may be downloaded from the acoustic device to a central database located, for example, on the Internet. The data may be retrieved by the patient, or upon instructions from the patient, may be transferred to or accessed by doctors for purposes of diagnosis, monitoring and treatment. The data may, in addition, include demographic and like data for each patient and preferably be stored while maintaining the anonymity of each patient. Such data may then be accessible to researchers who will have medical statistics on a wide variety of patients from various age groups, ethnic backgrounds, medical histories and the like.

Claims

1-21. -21. (canceled)

22. A computer-readable medium encoded with processing instructions for directing a processor to perform a method for compiling health information, the method comprising:

establishing a database for storing a plurality of health statuses of a plurality of users, wherein the database is centrally-accessible;

receiving, from a user, data corresponding to a health statistic of the user, the data generated by a health monitoring device;

determining a health status of the user from the health statistic;

storing the health status in the database; and

updating a population statistic based on the health status and the plurality of health statuses.

23. An apparatus for compiling health information, comprising:

a processor; and

a memory operatively connected to the processor for storing processing instructions directing the processor to;

establish a database for storing a plurality of health statuses of a plurality of users, wherein the database is centrally-accessible;

receive, from a user, data corresponding to a health statistic of the user, the data generated by a health monitoring device;

determine a health status of the user from the health statistic;

store the health status in the database; and

update a population statistic based on the health status and the plurality of health statuses.

24. An apparatus for compiling health information comprising:

means for establishing a database for storing a plurality of health statuses of a plurality of users, wherein the database is centrally-accessible;

means for receiving, from a user, data corresponding to a health statistic of the user, the data generated by a health monitoring device;

means for determining a health status of the user from the health statistic;

means for storing the health status in the database; and

means for updating a population statistic based on the health status and the plurality of health statuses.

25-29. -29. (canceled)

30. An apparatus for submitting acoustical cardiovascular data to a central database, comprising:

means for receiving, from a user, a request to detect a cardiovascular signal of the user;

means for initializing a cardiovascular monitoring device connected to a computer in response to the request;

means for measuring the cardiovascular signal during a startup routine performed by the computer;

means for receiving, at the computer, at least a portion of the detected cardiovascular signal of the user; and

means for transmitting data based on the received cardiovascular signal to a central database for storage in a record corresponding to the user.

31. An apparatus, for submitting acoustical cardiovascular data to a central database, comprising:

a processor; and

a memory operatively connected to the processor for storing processing instructions directing the processor to;

receive, from a user, a request to detect a cardiovascular signal of the user;

initialize a cardiovascular monitoring device connected to a computer in response to the request;

measure the cardiovascular signal during a startup routine performed by the computer;

receive, at the computer, at least a portion of the detected cardiovascular signal of the user; and

transmit data based on the received cardiovascular signal to a central database for storage in a record corresponding to the user.