System and Method for Medical Diagnosis Using Geospatial Location Data Integrated with Biomedical Sensor Information

• US 20120215455A1
• Filed: 02/17/2011
• Published: 08/23/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 02/17/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Patil, Sandeep R., Musial, John G., Shah, Dhaval K., Nagpal, Abhinay R.
• Granted Patent: US 9,251,685 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 702/19
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0022 Monitoring a patient using a global network, e.g. telephone networks, internet
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/1112 Global tracking of patients, e.g. by using GPS
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 21/02 Alarms for ensuring the safety of persons
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: Y02A 90/10 Information and communication technologies [ICT] supporting adaptation to climate change, e.g. for weather forecasting or climate simulation

Abstract

In at least one embodiment, a method and system for accumulating geospatial location data and biomedical data for an individual during his/her travels is provided. In at least one embodiment, a device uses at least one location signal to determine geospatial data and receives a plurality of biomedical signals with both data types being stored for possible later retrieval for providing a diagnosis for the individual if a medical condition arises. An embodiment of the invention provides a method of operation of a device having at least a memory and a communications module where the method includes receiving at least one location signal with the communications module; storing geospatial data obtained at least from the at least one location signal with a time stamp in memory; receiving a plurality of biomedical signals over time from at least one sensor with the communications module; storing biomedical data from the received biomedical signal with a time stamp in memory; and repeating the receiving at least one location signal and storing geospatial data from the at least one location signal in different geographic locations.

Claims

1. A method of operation of a device having memory and a communications module comprising:

receiving at least one location signal with the communications module;

storing geospatial data obtained at least from the at least one location signal with a time stamp in memory;

receiving a plurality of biomedical signals over time from at least one sensor with the communications module;

storing biomedical data from the received biomedical signal with a time stamp in memory; and

repeating the receiving at least one location signal and storing geospatial data from the at least one location signal in different geographic locations.

2. The method according to claim 1, further comprising determining the geographic location of the device based on contemporaneously received location signals, the geographic location is the geospatial data stored.

3. The method according to claim 1, further comprising translating the location signal into a geographic location for storage as the geospatial data.

4. The method according to claim 1, further comprising receiving the series of biomedical signals from one sensor at predetermined times.

5. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

receiving from memory the predetermined time period for obtaining a biomedical signal from the one sensor,

determining based on the time the last biomedical signal was received when to request the next biomedical signal from the one sensor,

requesting the biomedical signal from the one sensor in response to the time determined to request the next biomedical signal from the one sensor.

6. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

determining when a new geographic location has been reached by the device,

requesting a biomedical signal from each sensor associated with the device,

storing the received at least one biomedical signal with a time stamp and the geographic location in memory.

7. The method according to claim 6, wherein the data is stored in a database resident in memory of the device.

8. The method according to claim 1, further comprising transferring the geospatialal data, the biomedical data and associated time stamp data to an external computer.

9. The method according to claim 1, further comprising converting the biomedical signals into biomedical data representing a biomedical reading for the sensor that provided the biomedical signal.

10. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

correlating the biomedical readings with the geospatial data based on the respective time stamps;

deriving at least one geographic location from the geospatial data;

retrieving supplemental data for the at least one geographic location present in the data for time periods that the biomedical readings were gathered for that respective geographic location; and

displaying an interface to provide the correlated data and supplemental data to a user.

11. The method according to claim 10, wherein displaying includes displaying a map showing where the individual traveled recently with each discrete geographic location illustrated having a selection element for displaying information about the individual including a name of that geographic location, time information about the geographic location, at least one biomedical reading associated with that geographic location, and supplemental data for that geographic location.

12. A method comprising:

receiving a data set for an individual having geospatial data including a time stamp and biomedical readings correlated with at least one time stamp, the data set representative of recent travels of the individual;

correlating the biomedical readings with the geospatial data based on the respective time stamps;

retrieving supplemental data for the at least one geographic location corresponding to the geospatial data for time periods that the biomedical readings were gathered for that geographic location; and

displaying an interface to provide the correlated data and supplemental data to a user.

13. The method according to claim 12, wherein retrieving supplemental data includes conducting a search of medical databases containing information regarding at least one of health alerts, illness information for different geographic locations, and disease information for different geographic locations for information for geographic location represented by the geospatial data;

and

reviewing the search results for information relevant for the time periods in which the individual associated with the received data set was present in that geographic location.

14. The method according to claim 12, wherein displaying includes displaying a map showing where the individual traveled recently with each discrete geographic location illustrated having a selection element for displaying information about the individual including a name of that geographic location, time information about the geographic location, at least one biomedical reading associated with that geographic location, and supplemental data for that geographic location.

15. The method according to claim 12, wherein displaying includes displaying a plurality of locations and associated time information and biomedical readings for the individual.

16. The method according to claim 12, wherein the supplemental data includes a health alerts for the geographic locations recently visited by the individual.

17. A device comprising:

a communications module;

a location module connected to said communications module, said location module processes information received by said communications module associated with location of the device;

a monitoring module connected to said communications module, said monitoring module processes information received by said communications module associated with biomedical readings received from at least one external sensor; and

a memory connected to said location module and said monitoring module, said memory stores data outputted by said location module and said monitoring module.

18. The device according to claim 17, further comprising a clock connected to said monitoring module, and

wherein said monitoring module determines when to have said communications module request at least one biomedical signal from the at least one external sensor based on time information received from said clock and at least one sampling period stored in said memory.

19. The device according to claim 17, further comprising:

a display; and

an interface engine connected to said display and said memory, said interface engine retrieves data from said memory including stored biomedical readings, geospatial location data representing at least one geographic location, and associated temporal data to display a map on said display showing where the individual traveled recently with each discrete geographic location illustrated having a selection element for displaying information about the individual including a name of that geographic location, time information about the geographic location, at least one biomedical reading associated with that geographic location, and supplemental data for that geographic location.

20. The device according to claim 17, further comprising a medical facility detector connected to said memory and said location module, said medical facility detector determines whether the device is present at a medical facility based in part upon the geographic location determined by said location module and when present at the medical facility, said medical facility detector allows access to biomedical and geospatial data stored in said memory.

21. A method of operation of a device having memory and a communications module comprising:

receiving a plurality of biomedical signals over time from at least one sensor with the communications module;

storing data from the received biomedical signal with a time stamp in memory;

obtaining at least one location signal for each received biomedical signal with the communications module;

determining geospatial data based on the at least one obtained location signal,

storing geospatial data in memory correlated with the data from the received biomedical signal; and

repeating the receiving at least one location signal and storing geospatial data from the at least one location signal in different geographic locations.

22. The method according to claim 21, further comprising:

correlating the biomedical readings with the geospatial data based on the respective time stamps;

deriving at least one geographic location from the geospatial data;

retrieving supplemental data for geographic locations present in the data set for time periods that the biomedical readings were gathered for that respective geographic location; and

displaying an interface to provide the correlated data and supplemental data to a user.

23. The method according to claim 21, further comprising:

correlating the biomedical readings with the geospatial data based on the respective time stamps;

deriving at least one geographic location from the geospatial data; and

displaying an interface to provide the correlated data to a user.

24. The method according to claim 23, wherein displaying the interface includes displaying a map showing where the individual traveled recently with each discrete geographic location illustrated having a selection element for displaying information about the individual including a name of that geographic location, time information about the geographic location, and at least one biomedical reading associated with that geographic location.

25. A computer program product for content management, said computer program product including:

a computer readable storage medium;

first program instructions to obtain at least one location signal;

second program instructions to translate the at least one location signal into a geographic location and store the geographic location in memory;

third program instructions to receive a plurality of biomedical signals over time from at least one sensor;

fourth program instructions to translate each received biomedical signal into a biomedical reading and store the biomedical reading with a time stamp in memory; and

said first program instructions, said second program instructions, said third program instructions, and said fourth program instructions are stored on said computer readable storage medium.