Identifying Clinical Trial Candidates

• US 20090089098A1
• Filed: 05/08/2008
• Published: 04/02/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 10/02/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: American Well Corporation (Amwell Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: American Well Corporation (Amwell Incorporated)
• Inventors: Schoenberg, Roy
• Granted Patent: US 7,937,275 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/3
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 10/20 for electronic clinical trials or questionnaires
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 50/20 for computer-aided diagnosis, e.g. based on medical expert systems

Abstract

In general in one aspect, one or more clinical study candidates are identified by consolidating health care information for a consumer, applying the consumer'"'"'s health care information to a rules engine, identifying a consumer as eligible to participate in one or more clinical studies, and presenting an opportunity to participate in the study to the consumer.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method of identifying one or more clinical study candidates, the method comprises:

consolidating health care information for a consumer;

applying the consumer'"'"'s health care information to a rules engine;

identifying a consumer as eligible to participate in one or more clinical studies; and

presenting an opportunity to participate in the study to the consumer.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein presenting the opportunity comprises adding an event to an agenda associated with the consumer.

3. The method of claim 1 furthering comprising:

receiving an acceptance of the opportunity from the consumer;

enrolling the consumer in the study; and

adding tasks related to the study to an agenda associated with the consumer.

4. The method of claim 1 further comprising detecting changes in a state of the consumer'"'"'s health care information.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein the consumer'"'"'s health care information is applied to the rules engine upon detecting at least one change in the state of the consumer'"'"'s health care information.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the rules engine defines one or more rules.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein the one or more rules are based on criterion specified by the study.

8. The method of claim 3 further comprising:

providing a communication channel to establish a communication between the consumer and a service provider satisfying at least some attributes in a set of attributes defined by the study.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein the consumer'"'"'s health care information is input into the rules engine at a predefined time.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein the consumer is identified as eligible to participate in the clinical study while the consumer is using a system capable of:

receiving a request from the consumer to consult with a service provider having a service provider profile that satisfies at least some attributes defined by the consumer; and

identifying an available service provider satisfying at least some of the attributes.

11. The method of claim 1 further comprising adding new health care information to the consolidated health care information.

12. The method of claim 1 wherein the health care information is collected through the consumer'"'"'s use of a system that is capable of identifying an available service provider satisfying at least some attributes in a set of attributes defined by the consumer.

23. The computer program product of claim 1 further comprising instructions to add new health care information to the consolidated health care information.

13. A computer program product residing on a computer readable medium for identifying one or more clinical study candidates, the computer program product comprising instructions for causing a computer to:

consolidate health care information for a consumer;

apply the consumer'"'"'s health care information to a rules engine;

identify the consumer as eligible to participate in one or more clinical studies; and

present an opportunity to participate in the study to the consumer.

14. The computer program product of claim 13 wherein instructions to present an opportunity comprises instructions to:

add an event to an agenda associated with the consumer.

15. The computer program product of claim 13 further comprising instructions to:

receive an acceptance of the opportunity from the consumer;

enroll the consumer in the study; and

add tasks related to the study to an agenda associated with the consumer.

16. The computer program product of claim 13 further comprising instructions to:

detect changes in a state of the consumer'"'"'s health care information.

17. The computer program product of claim 16 wherein the instructions to apply the consumer'"'"'s health care information comprise instructions to:

apply the rules engine to the consumer'"'"'s health care information upon detecting at least one change in the state of the consumer'"'"'s health care information.

18. The computer program product of claim 13 wherein the rules engine defines one or more rules.

19. The computer program product of claim 18 wherein the one or more rules are based on criterion specified by the study.

20. The computer program product of claim 15 further comprising instructions to:

provide a communication channel to establish a communication between the consumer and a service provider satisfying at least some attributes in a set of attributes defined by the study.

21. The computer program product of claim 13 wherein the consumer'"'"'s health care information is input into the rules engine at a predefined time.

22. The computer program product of claim 13 wherein the instructions to identify the consumer further comprises instructions to:

receive a request from the consumer to consult with a service provider having a service provider profile that satisfies at least some attributes defined by the consumer;

identify an available service provider that satisfies at least some of the attributes; and

indicate the consumer as eligible to participate in one or more clinical studies based on the consumer'"'"'s health care information.

24. An apparatus comprising:

a processor; and

a computer program product residing on a computer readable medium for identifying one or more clinical study candidates, the computer program product comprising instructions for causing the processor to;

consolidate health care information for a consumer;

apply the consumer'"'"'s health care information to a rules engine;

identify the consumer as eligible to participate in one or more clinical studies; and

present an opportunity to participate in the study to the consumer.

25. The apparatus of claim 24 wherein instructions to present an opportunity comprise instructions to:

add an event to an agenda associated with the consumer.

26. The apparatus of claim 24 further comprising instructions to:

receive an acceptance of the opportunity from the consumer;

enroll the consumer in the study; and

add tasks related to the study to an agenda associated with the consumer.

27. The apparatus of claim 24 further comprising instructions to:

detect changes in a state of the consumer'"'"'s health care information.

28. The apparatus of claim 27 wherein the instructions to apply the consumer'"'"'s health care information comprise instructions to:

apply the rules engine to the consumer'"'"'s health care information upon detecting at least one change in the state of the consumer'"'"'s health care information.

29. The apparatus of claim 24 wherein the rules engine defines one or more rules.

30. The apparatus of claim 29 wherein the one or more rules are based on criterion specified by the study.

31. The apparatus of claim 26 further comprising instructions to:

provide a communication channel to establish a communication between the consumer and a service provider satisfying at least some attributes in a set of attributes defined by the study.

32. The apparatus of claim 24 wherein the consumer'"'"'s health care information is applied to the rules engine at a predefined time.

33. The apparatus of claim 24 wherein the instructions to identify the consumer comprise instructions to:

receive a request from the consumer to consult with a service provider having a service provider profile that satisfies at least some attributes defined by the consumer;

identify an available service provider that satisfies at least some of the attributes; and

indicate the consumer as eligible to participate in one or more clinical studies based on the consumer'"'"'s health care information.

34. The apparatus of claim 24 further comprising instructions to add new health care information to the consolidated health care information.