Systems and methods for mobile healthcare alerts

• US 7,996,244 B1
• Filed: 04/30/2007
• Issued: 08/09/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 04/30/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Intuit, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Intuit, Inc.
• Inventors: Fitch, Todd M.
• Primary Examiner(s): O'Connor; Gerald J.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Pauls; John A
• Application Number:
  US11/742,249
• Time in Patent Office: 1,562 Days
• Field of Search: 705/2, 705/3, 705/4, 705/75, 368/10
• US Class Current: 705/3
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 10/20 for electronic clinical trials or questionnaires
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 10/60 for patient-specific data, e.g. for electronic patient records
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 10/65 stored on portable record carriers, e.g. on smartcards, RFID tags or CD
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/67 for remote operation
• 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

Various embodiments of a method and apparatus for a portable medical alert mechanism stores health information on a portable electronic device and provides the health information to a health professional. In some embodiments, the health information may include information about a health condition, a health history, current medications, current medication dosages, allergies, or instructions. The health information may be on the portable electronic device and/or downloaded from a web-based application. In some embodiments, the health information may be selected and transferred to the portable electronic device by the system user from an external computer system. The health information stored on the portable electronic device may be periodically updated. The system user (or the portable electronic device) may have an indication of the presence of the health information on the portable electronic device (e.g., on a bracelet).

Claims

1. A system, comprising:

a server device configured to couple to a network, wherein the server device is configured to;

provide one or more heuristic questions to determine what information to include in a system user'"'"'s health information to be transferred to a portable device, the health information at least including at least one of either psychological information or dental records, and wherein answers to the heuristic questions are used by the system to determine further questions to ask the user, if any;

receiving a recommendation as to one or more recommended portions of the health information to transfer to the portable device, based on the answers to the heuristic questions;

receiving approval from the system user to transfer at least one of the recommended portions of health information to the portable electronic device;

transfer the at least one portion of approved health information to the portable electronic device, wherein the server device is configured to be able to transfer the information to a plurality of portable electronic devices including individual ones of a mobile phone, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a portable audio player, and a portable game player;

automatically transferring health information updates to the portable electronic device at times when the device is coupled to a source for updated health information, the health information contained in any given update being automatically determined using information filters previously setup by the user being applied to new information received at the system user'"'"'s health information;

wherein the portable electronic device is operable to store the health information, the portable electronic device including a plurality of security tiers, each tier requiring a different type of security identifier for access to health information in that tier, the available types of security identifiers for each tier including a password or PIN provided by the user, a fingerprint of the user, and a retina scan of the user;

wherein the system user provides an indication to a health professional to the existence of the health information stored on the portable electronic device, the health professional being an emergency medical technician, a physician, physician'"'"'s assistant, a nurse, or an insurance company representative; and

wherein the portable electronic device is operable to provide the health information associated with a given security tier to the health professional upon receiving a security identifier appropriate for the given security tier; and

providing the health information, from an appropriate security tier based on a received security identifier, to the health professional using the portable electronic device.

2. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein the health information includes information about a health condition, a personal health history, personal health record, current medications, current medication dosages, allergies, or instructions.

3. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein the health information comprises a web-based link.

4. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein the health information provided to the portable electronic device is at least partially selected from a collection of health information maintained for the system user on a network based health information system.

5. The system as recited in claim 4, wherein the system user selects the health information through a system user interface provided by the system.

6. The system as recited in claim 4, wherein transferring the health information comprises downloading the health information from a healthcare application.

7. A computer readable storage medium, comprising program instructions, wherein the program instructions are computer-executable to implement:

provide one or more heuristic questions to determine what information to include in a system user'"'"'s health information to be transferred to a portable device, the health information at least including at least one of either psychological information or dental records, and wherein answers to the heuristic questions are used by the system to determine further questions to ask the user, if any;

receiving a recommendation as to one or more recommended portions of the health information to transfer to the portable device, based on the answers to the heuristic questions;

receiving approval from the system user to transfer at least one of the recommended portions of health information to the portable electronic device;

transfer the at least one portion of approved health information to the portable electronic device, wherein the server device is configured to be able to transfer the information to a plurality of portable electronic devices including individual ones of a mobile phone, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a portable audio player, and a portable game player;

automatically transferring health information updates to the portable electronic device, the health information contained in any given update being automatically determined using information filters previously setup by the user being applied to new information received at the system user'"'"'s health information;

wherein the portable electronic device is operable to store the health information, the portable electronic device including a plurality of security tiers, each tier requiring a different type of security identifier for access to health information in that tier, the available types of security identifiers for each tier including a password or PIN provided by the user, a fingerprint of the user, and a retina scan of the user;

wherein the system user provides an indication to a health professional to the existence of the health information stored on the portable electronic device, the health professional being an emergency medical technician, a physician, physician'"'"'s assistant, a nurse, or an insurance company representative; and

wherein the portable electronic device is operable to provide the health information associated with a given security tier to the health professional upon receiving a security identifier appropriate for the given security tier; and

providing the health information, from an appropriate security tier based on a received security identifier, to the health professional using the portable electronic device.

8. The computer readable storage medium as recited in claim 7, wherein the health information includes information about a health condition, a personal health history, personal health record, current medications, current medication dosages, allergies, or instructions.

9. The computer readable storage medium as recited in claim 7, wherein the health information comprises a web-based link.

10. The computer readable storage medium as recited in claim 7, wherein the user selects the health information through a system user interface provided by a computer system communicatively coupled to the portable electronic device.

11. The computer readable storage medium as recited in claim 7, wherein the health information is downloaded from a healthcare application.

12. The computer readable storage medium as recited in claim 7, wherein the program instructions are further computer executable to automatically transfer updates to the portable electronic device of the previously stored health information stored on the portable electronic device, the information contained in any given update automatically being determined using information filters previously setup by the user.

13. The system of claim 7 wherein the system user'"'"'s health information is stored on a computing system which periodically communicates with the portable electronic device through wireless means and the updates are broadcast to the wireless portable electronic device when the updates are available.