Assisting and monitoring method and system

• US 7,301,463 B1
• Filed: 04/13/2005
• Issued: 11/27/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 04/14/2004
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Sage Life Technologies, LLC
• Original Assignee: Sage Life Technologies, LLC
• Inventors: Paterno, David Joseph August
• Primary Examiner(s): TRIEU, VAN THANH
• Application Number:
  US11/104,765
• Time in Patent Office: 958 Days
• Field of Search: 340/500, 340/502, 340/505, 340/506, 340/531, 340/539.1, 340/539.11, 340/539.14, 340/286.01, 340/286.06, 340/573.1, 340/573.5, 340/521, 340/522, 340/309.4, 340/309.7, 340/309.8, 340/286.07, 370/352, 379/37, 725/76, 705/34, 600/300, 600/301, 128/903, 128/904, 128/920, 128/921
• US Class Current: 340/573.1
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/20 for the management or administration of healthcare resources or facilities, e.g. managing hospital staff or surgery rooms
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/67 for remote operation
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 50/20 for computer-aided diagnosis, e.g. based on medical expert systems

Abstract

A convenient task reminder, compliance logging and monitoring system for routine activities is presented as well as an automated communications/notification system that can relay the activity and/or inactivity recorded by the Home Unit device to other systems and/or specifically designated people.

Claims

1. A method for assisting and monitoring a person'"'"'s compliance to complete certain healthcare tasks, and simultaneously providing an automated communication tool to other persons or systems comprising:

generating an activity event log of data pertaining to the person'"'"'s healthcare-compliance activities by monitoring and time-based recording of signals from at least one input mechanism;

providing a task reminder schedule containing time-sensitive reminder alerts to alert the person of scheduled healthcare tasks they need to complete;

comparing the activity event log to the task reminder schedule to create a compliance metric associated with every scheduled healthcare task;

communicating selective parts of the activity event log and compliance metrics to other persons or systems;

providing a capability for periodic review of the data pertaining to the time-based recorded signals and computed compliance metrics in said activity event log; and

providing a capability to update memory contents, with an updated task reminder schedule, profile preference settings, and digital messages.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising storing a user profile for said person, wherein said stored user profile allows one or more input signals to modify the functionality of the reminder alerts and compliance decisions related to time based expected signal inputs.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the capability for periodic activity event log data review and memory content updates includes communication activities comprising:

performing a communication transaction to communicate part or all of the activity event log data over a wired or wireless network to an external device;

receiving acknowledgement of successful communication of the activity event data over the network from the external device;

receiving updated memory settings for profile preference settings, digital messages, reminder alerts and scheduled healthcare tasks and generating a received updates message;

performing a self test on the received updates message to identify the occurrence of a successful update;

sending a confirmation signal of a successful update over the network to the external device when a successful update has occurred; and

restarting the communication transactions if any part of the communication transaction is not confirmed as successful.

4. The method of claim 3 where the communication transaction is initiated by a Home Unit and comprises stored profile settings that trigger the communication activities based on scheduled times, certain input signal combinations, the lack of expected input signals during scheduled times, and/or select combinations of such.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein said other persons include account users, where the communication transaction is initiated by an external device or system and comprises stored profile settings that trigger the communication activities based on scheduled times, lack of expected communications from a Home Unit, programming updates performed by said account users through the external device or a system account management interface, programming updates initiated by other computer based systems, and/or select combinations of such.

6. A system that assists and monitors a person'"'"'s compliance to complete certain healthcare tasks based on logging of healthcare task completion, healthcare-task reminders, and group notification tools comprising:

a controller generating an activity event log of data pertaining to the person'"'"'s healthcare activities by monitoring and recording signals from at least one input mechanism, recording time-of-occurrence records with the input signal(s), a healthcare-task reminder schedule containing time-sensitive healthcare-task reminders to alert the person of healthcare tasks they need to complete, comparing the activity event log to the healthcare task reminder schedule to create a compliance metric associated with scheduled healthcare tasks, coupled to a network, wherein the activity event log data and task compliance metrics can be communicated over the network to conventional messaging tools based on customized settings stored in a user profile corresponding to the person.

7. The system of claim 6 where said user profile allows one or more input signals to modify the functionality of the reminder alerts and compliance decisions related to time based expected signal inputs.

8. The system of claim 7 where said at least one input mechanism includes a voice recorder that allows the person to dictate and store a voice message.

9. The system of claim 7, further comprising one or more output mechanisms where the output mechanisms include a capability to audibly play voice messages at specified times.

10. The system of claim 7, further comprising at least one Home Unit, wherein said at least one Home Unit communicates part or all of its activity event log data over a wired or wireless network to a Computer based Subscriber Communications Management System (SCMS), receives acknowledgement of successful communications from the SCMS, and may at times also receive updated memory settings for the Home Unit from the SCMS.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the one or more Home Units further perform a self-test on the received updates message, sends a confirmation signal of a successful update over the network to the SCMS;

and restarts the communication transactions if any part is not confirmed as successful.

12. The system of claim 11 where the communication is initiated by the Home Unit, said communication comprising profile settings that trigger the communication activities based on scheduled times, certain input signal combinations, the lack of expected input signals during times during which a healthcare task is scheduled, and/or select combinations of such.

13. The system of claim 11 where the communication is initiated by an external device or system, said communication comprising profile settings that trigger the communication activities based on scheduled times, lack of expected communications from the Home Unit, programming updates performed by account users through the external device or system account management interface, programming updates initiated by other computer based systems, and/or select combinations of such.

14. The system of claim 10 where the communication is initiated by the Home Unit and comprises profile settings that trigger the communication activities based on scheduled times, certain input signal combinations, the lack of expected input signals during times during which a healthcare task is scheduled, and/or select combinations of such.

15. The system of claim 10 where the communication is initiated by an external device or system, said communication comprising profile settings that trigger the communication activities based on scheduled times, lack of expected communications from the Home Unit, programming updates performed by account users through the external device or system account management interface, programming updates initiated by other computer based systems, and/or select combinations of such.

16. The system of claim 6 where the Home Unit(s) further include the capability to provide intercom communications between other Home Units, and/or pre-selected cellular telephones that are grouped into one or more intercom groups;

the exact Home Units and cellular telephones in an intercom group being stored in a profile setting within the Home Unit(s), and/or SCMS.

17. The system of claim 16 where the intercom communications are supported over an existing Cellular Telephone system infrastructure.

18. The system of claim 16 where the intercom communications are supported by direct unit-to-unit wireless methods.

19. The system of claim 16 where the intercom communications are supported over an existing Paging system infrastructure.