Medical listener

• US 7,933,783 B2
• Filed: 04/02/2008
• Issued: 04/26/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 10/01/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: American Well Corporation (Amwell Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: American Well Corporation (Amwell Incorporated)
• Inventors: Schoenberg, Roy
• Primary Examiner(s): O'Connor; Gerald J.
• Assistant Examiner(s): ALTSCHUL, AMBER L
• Application Number:
  US12/061,338
• Publication Number:
  US 20090089086A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,119 Days
• Field of Search: 705 2- 3
• US Class Current: 705/2
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/08 Auctions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/08 Insurance
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 80/00 ICT specially adapted for facilitating communication between medical practitioners or patients, e.g. for collaborative diagnosis, therapy or health monitoring

Abstract

An engagement is brokered between a consumer and a medical service provider; electronic text of a real-time, text-based communication between the medical service provider and the consumer is monitored during the engagement; the electronic text is analyzed for a triggering event related to at least one of medical diagnosis and medical treatment; the triggering event is detected in the electronic text; and medical information is provided to the medical service provider via a user interface in response to the triggering event.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for determining topics in which a patient could benefit from additional medical information, the method comprising:

receiving over a network a real-time text-based communication between a medical service provider and the patient;

parsing the real-time text-based communication between the medical service provider and the patient into one or more text units;

comparing, by one or more computers, the one or more text units to a list of triggering keywords, the triggering keywords including words that indicate a potential medical issue, to detect one or more triggering keywords in the communication, with the triggering keywords associated with one or more health care topics;

determining, based on the triggering keywords detected by the comparing, one or more health care topics that are associated with the detected triggering keywords;

retrieving by the one or more computers a list of the determined one or more health care topics for the patient and the medical service provider to discuss during the real-time communication;

generating, by the one or more computers, a graphical user interface that when rendered on a display device, renders a visual representation of the list of the one or more health care topics; and

sending, over the network by the one or more computers during the real-time communication between the medical service provider and the patient, the graphical user interface to a computing device being used by the medical service provider.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

retrieving from one or more data repositories the list of triggering keywords; and

associating one of more of the triggering keywords included in the list with the one or more health care topics.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein comparing the one or more first values associated with the one or more text units to one or more second values associated with the list of triggering keywords comprises comparing at least a portion of the real-time communication to a list of medical terms.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein comparing the one or more first values associated with the one or more text units to one or more second values associated with the list of triggering keywords comprises comparing at least a portion of the real-time communication to a numerical threshold.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein detecting the trigging keywords comprises comparing at least a portion of the real-time communication to a criterion defined by the medical service provider.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising retrieving data from a data repository that stores medical information.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the real-time communication is established by:

brokering a real-time engagement between the medical service provider and the patient; and

wherein the communication represents a secure communication between the medical service provider and the patient during the engagement.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising querying the patient for permission to provide the medical information to the medical service provider.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein querying the patient comprises displaying a pop-up window to the patient in a user interface associated with an engagement between the medical service provider and the patient.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein querying the patient comprises providing a prompt from an interactive voice response system.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising querying the medical service provider for an identification code before providing medical information to the medical service provider.

12. A computer program product for determining topics in which a patient could benefit from additional medical information, embodied on a computer readable storage medium, the computer program product comprising instructions for causing a computer to:

receive over a network a real-time text-based communication between a medical service provider and the patient;

parse the real-time text-based communication between the medical service provider and the patient into one or more text units comprising at least one of words, phrases and sentences;

compare the one or more text units to a list of triggering keywords, the triggering keywords including words that indicate a potential medical issue, to detect one or more triggering keywords in the communication, with the triggering keywords associated with one or more health care topics;

determine, based on the triggering keywords detected, one or more health care topics that are associated with the detected triggering keywords;

retrieve a list of the determined one or more health care topics for the patient and the medical service provider to discuss during the real-time communication;

generate a graphical user interface that when rendered on a display device, renders a visual representation of the list of the one or more health care topics; and

send, over the network during the real-time communication between the medical service provider and the patient, the graphical user interface to a computing device being used by the medical service provider in response to detecting the one or more triggering keywords.

13. The computer program product of claim 12, further comprising instructions for causing the computer to:

retrieve from one or more data repositories the list of triggering keywords; and

associate one of more of the triggering keywords included in the list with the one or more health care topics.

14. The computer program product of claim 12, wherein the instructions to compare one or more first values associated with the one or more text units to one or more second values associated with the list of triggering keywords comprise instructions to compare at least a portion of the real-time communication to a list of medical terms.

15. The computer program product of claim 12, wherein the instructions to compare one or more first values associated with the one or more text units to one or more second values associated with the list of triggering keywords comprise instructions to compare at least a portion of the real-time communication to a numerical threshold.

16. The computer program product of claim 12, wherein the instructions to compare one or more first values associated with the one or more text units to one or more second values associated with the list of triggering keywords comprise instructions to compare at least a portion of the real-time communication to a criterion defined by the medical service provider.

17. The computer program product of claim 12, further comprising instructions to retrieve data from a data repository that stores medical information.

18. The computer program product of claim 12, wherein the real-time communication is established by instructions for causing the computer to:

broker a real-time engagement between the medical service provider and the patient; and

wherein the communication represents a secure communication between the medical service provider and the patient during the engagement.

19. The computer program product of claim 12, further comprising instructions to query the patient for permission to provide the medical information to the medical service provider.

20. The computer program product of claim 19, wherein the instructions to query the patient comprise instructions to display a pop-up window to the patient in a user interface associated with an engagement between the medical service provider and the patient.

21. The computer program product of claim 19, wherein the instructions to query the patient comprise instructions to provide a prompt from an interactive voice response system.

22. The computer program product of claim 12, further comprising instructions to query the medical service provider for an identification code before providing medical information to the medical service provider.

23. An apparatus comprising:

a processor; and

a computer program product embodied on a computer readable storage medium comprising instructions for causing the processor to;

receive over a network a real-time text-based communication between a medical service provider and the patient;

parse the real-time text-based communication between the medical service provider and the patient into one or more text units comprising at least one of words, phrases and sentences;

compare the one or more text units to a list of triggering keywords, the triggering keywords including words that indicate a potential medical issue, to detect one or more triggering keywords in the communication, with the triggering keywords associated with one or more health care topics;

determine, based on the triggering keywords detected, one or more health care topics that are associated with the detected triggering keywords;

retrieve a list of the determined one or more health care topics for the patient and the medical service provider to discuss during the real-time communication;

generate a graphical user interface that when rendered on a display device, renders a visual representation of the list of the one or more health care topics; and

send, over the network during the real-time communication between the medical service provider and the patient, the graphical user interface to a computing device being used by the medical service provider in response to detecting the one or more triggering keywords.