METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR FACILITATING REMOTE HEALTH MONITORING OF A COMPUTERIZED HEALTHCARE SYSTEM

• US 20130246615A1
• Filed: 03/15/2013
• Published: 09/19/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 03/15/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Change Healthcare Holdings, LLC (UnitedHealth Group Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Mckesson Financial Holdings Limited (McKesson Corp.)
• Inventors: Chakrabarti, Robi, Allard, Scott, Jensen, Todd
• Granted Patent: US 9,426,051 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/224
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/08 Monitoring or testing based on specific metrics, e.g. QoS, energy consumption or environmental parameters
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/10 Active monitoring, e.g. heartbeat, ping or trace-route
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/125 involving control of end-device applications over a network

Abstract

A method, apparatus and computer program product are provided to facilitate the monitoring of the health of a plurality of computerized healthcare systems deployed at a plurality of different sites, such as at various healthcare facilities. In the context of a method, one or more sensor(s) may be identified that are to be downloaded and executed by a plurality of remote servers in order to provide for health monitoring of a computerized healthcare system. The method also receives the results of the health monitoring from the plurality of remote servers and determines a health score for the computerized healthcare system of a respective remote server based upon the results. The method may further cause a technician to be advised of the results and the healthcare score.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

identifying one or more sensors to be downloaded and executed by a plurality of remote servers in order to provide for health monitoring of a computerized health care system;

receiving results of the health monitoring from the plurality of remote servers;

determining, with processing circuitry, a health score for a computerized health care system of a respective remote server based upon the results; and

causing a technician to be advised of the results and the health score.

2. A method according to claim 1 further comprising receiving information indicating that a technician is aware of an issue with the computerized health care system, wherein determining the health score comprises determining the health score for the computerized health care system based at least in part upon the information indicating that the technician is aware of an issue with the computerized health care system.

3. A method according to claim 1 wherein determining the health score comprises:

determining a state of the computerized health care system based on a relationship between the results of the health monitoring and a plurality of candidate states for a respective type of health monitoring; and

defining the health score based on the state of the computerized health care system.

4. A method according to claim 1 further comprising activating the one or more sensors to be downloaded to a respective remove server.

5. A method according to claim 4, wherein activating the one or more sensors comprises associating a time with a respective sensor to define the time during which the respective sensor is to be active.

6. A computer program product comprising at least one non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having computer-executable program code instructions stored therein and configured, upon execution, to perform the method of claim 1.

8. An apparatus according to claim 6 the processing circuitry is further configured to receive information indicating that a technician is aware of an issue with the computerized health care system, wherein the processing circuitry is configured to determine the health score by determining the health score for the computerized health care system based at least in part upon the information indicating that the technician is aware of an issue with the computerized health care system.

9. An apparatus according to claim 6 wherein the processing circuitry is configured to determine the health score by:

determining a state of the computerized health care system based on a relationship between the results of the health monitoring and a plurality of candidate states for a respective type of health monitoring; and

defining the health score based on the state of the computerized health care system.

10. An apparatus according to claim 6 wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to activate the one or more sensors to be downloaded to a respective remove server.

11. An apparatus according to claim 10, wherein the processing circuitry is configured to activate the one or more sensors by associating a time with a respective sensor to define the time during which the respective sensor is to be active.

7. An apparatus comprising processing circuitry configured to:

identify one or more sensors to be downloaded and executed by a plurality of remote servers in order to provide for health monitoring of a computerized health care system;

receive results of the health monitoring from the plurality of remote servers;

determining a health score for a computerized health care system of a respective remote server based upon the results; and

cause a technician to be advised of the results and the health score.

12. A method comprising:

identifying one or more sensors that are to be deployed;

downloading the one or more sensors;

executing, with a processing circuitry, the one or more sensors in accordance with a predefined schedule in order to provide for health monitoring of a computerized health care system;

causing the results of the health monitoring to be provided to a remote server for analysis; and

repeating the identifying, downloading, executing and causing steps to permit additional sensors to be deployed.

13. A method according to claim 12 further comprising receiving a schedule defining a time for executing the one or more sensors.

14. A method according to claim 13 further comprising entering a sleep mode following downloading of the one of more sensors in accordance with the schedule.

15. A method according to claim 12 further comprising:

determining if one or more sensors for the computer health care system have changed since the one or more sensors have been downloaded; and

downloading one or more sensors that are determined to have changed.

16. A computer program product comprising at least one non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having computer-executable program code instructions stored therein and configured, upon execution, to perform the method of claim 12.

17. An apparatus comprising processing circuitry configured to:

identify one or more sensors that are to be deployed;

download the one or more sensors;

execute the one or more sensors in accordance with a predefined schedule in order to provide for health monitoring of a computerized health care system;

cause the results of the health monitoring to be provided to a remote server for analysis; and

repeat the identifying, downloading, executing and causing steps to permit additional sensors to be deployed.

18. An apparatus according to claim 17 wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to receive a schedule defining a time for executing the one or more sensors.

19. An apparatus according to claim 18 wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to enter a sleep mode following downloading of the one of more sensors in accordance with the schedule.

20. An apparatus according to claim 17 wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to:

determine if one or more sensors for the computer health care system have changed since the one or more sensors have been downloaded; and

download one or more sensors that are determined to have changed.