ITINERARY SEARCH TOOL FOR TERRITORY MANAGEMENT

• US 20080281858A1
• Filed: 10/26/2007
• Published: 11/13/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 10/27/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Purdue Pharma L.P.
• Original Assignee: Purdue Pharma L.P.
• Inventors: Subramanian, Ramachandran, Aleksiejczyk, Kim, Ciszkowski, Mietek, Stahl, Jake, Natarajan, Sayee, Chellappa, Balaji
• Granted Patent: US 8,032,402 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/102
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2477 Temporal data queries
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/29 Geographical information databases
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06311 Scheduling, planning or task assignment for a person or group
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/109 Time management, e.g. calendars, reminders, meetings or time accounting

Abstract

Electronically creating an itinerary schedule in a calendar program. A geographic indicator and a calendar date are acquired and coordinated with each other to define an itinerary entry. The itinerary entry is included into a calendar program maintained by the machine. The step of acquiring the geographic indicator further comprises the step of updating a counter upon each selection of a geographic indicator. Another method electronically populates a calendar program with an event using an itinerary entry. Optionally, health care providers from within a geographic indicator are included in the itinerary entry. A geographic indicator and calendar date are obtained from an itinerary entry, and additional search criteria are input. A search of a database is executed to identify candidates matching the geographic indicator and search criteria. Candidate matches are assigned to a time slot, and each time slot is populated into the calendar program on the calendar date.

Claims

1. A computer-assisted method for electronically creating an itinerary schedule for a representative in a calendar program, comprising the steps of:

acquiring in an interactive user-interface a first set of geographic indicators and a second set of calendar dates;

interacting with the user-interface so as to coordinate at least one geographic indicator from the first set with at least one calendar date in the second set and thereby define an itinerary entry; and

including the itinerary entry for the at least one calendar date into the calendar program on respective dates which correspond to the at least one calendar date.

2. The method of claim 1, including the additional step of displaying through the user-interface the itinerary entry in the calendar program after the including step.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of acquiring the first set of geographic indicators further comprises the step of updating a counter upon each selection of the geographic indicator through the user-interface.

4. The method of claim 3, including the additional step of displaying through the user-interface the itinerary entry in the calendar program after the including step.

5. The method of claim 1, including the additional step of selecting one or more health care providers that are associated with at least one geographic indicator in the set of geographic indicators after the interacting step.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the including step includes any selected health care providers as part of the itinerary entry.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein data associated with any selected health care providers is included in a time slot in the calendar program.

8. A computer-assisted method for electronically creating events for inclusion in a calendar program comprising the steps of:

obtaining a geographic indicator and calendar date from data in a memory of a machine;

executing a search of a database on the machine to identify at least one candidate having a matching geographic indicator;

assigning in the memory at least a portion of any candidate matches to a time slot within the calendar date; and

populating one or more time slots of the calendar program with the memory assignments.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the obtaining step includes a geographic indicator within a territory of a representative.

10. The method of claim 8, including the additional step of displaying through the user-interface the itinerary entry in the calendar program after the populating step.

11. The method of claim 10, including the additional step, prior to the assigning step, of selecting one or more candidates, and wherein the assigned portion of candidate matches includes the one or more selected candidates.

12. The method of claim 8, wherein the assigning step further comprises using a candidate preference in the step of assigning the portion to respective time slots.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the candidate preference is stored in a database on the machine.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein the candidate preference is stored in a database on a central server.

15. A computer-assisted method for electronically populating a calendar program for a representative with an event using an itinerary entry, comprising the steps of:

obtaining a geographic indicator and calendar date from the itinerary entry;

inputting one or more search criteria;

executing a search of a database to identify at least one candidate matching the geographic indicator and the one or more search criteria;

assigning in a memory at least a portion of any candidate matches to a time slot within the calendar date;

populating each time slot of the calendar program with the memory assignments for the calendar date.

16. The method of claim 15, including the additional step of displaying through the user-interface the itinerary entry in the calendar program after the populating step.

17. The method of claim 16, including the additional step, prior to the assigning step, of selecting one or more candidates, and wherein the assigned portion of candidate matches includes the one or more selected candidates.

18. The method of claim 15, wherein the assigning step further comprises using a candidate preference in the step of assigning the portion to respective time slots.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the candidate preferences are stored in a database on the machine.

20. The method of claim 18, wherein the candidate preferences are stored in a database on a central server.

21. The method of claim 15, wherein the search criteria is a time since last visit.