Method for direct-to-patient marketing and clinical trials recruitment with outcomes tracking and method for confidential appointment booking
First Claim
1. An electronic method performed on a computer for booking appointments for a client'"'"'s medical product or therapy for a patient via a marketer'"'"'s web site, comprising:
- a. finding potential patients who are suitable candidates for a specific medical condition including the steps of;
b. interactively qualifying interested parties utilizing predetermined criteriac. referring the qualified interested party to at least one preferred health care professional capable of offering the client'"'"'s specific product comprising;
1) electronically querying by a computer, in advance, with preferred health care professionals which can provide medical services utilizing the client'"'"'s product or therapy,2) electronically querying by a computer a further database of said preferred health care professionals providing the patient with a preferred health care professional most appropriate to the patient;
in advance of booking appointments, electronically contracting, by a computer, with preferred health care professionals to obtain pre-approved appointment slots which may be scheduled by the marketer; and
storing said data in marketer'"'"'s data base;
electronically querying the patient to schedule an appointment for the patient with a preferred health care professional drawing from the data base of pre-approved appointment slots; and
scheduling an appointment for the patient with a preferred health care professional drawing from the database of pre-approved appointment slots.
7 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
Generally, the present invention is directed to marketing techniques and more particularly to direct-to-patient marketing for medical devices, pharmaceutical drugs, and biotechnology products. The approach presented here may also be applied to the recruitment of patients for clinical trials evaluation including tracking outcomes after treatment. An embodiment of the invention includes the steps of finding potential patients, qualifying potential patients, connecting potential patients to preferred physicians, and tracking the patient'"'"'s progress through the appointment phase and tracking outcomes.
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Citations
10 Claims
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1. An electronic method performed on a computer for booking appointments for a client'"'"'s medical product or therapy for a patient via a marketer'"'"'s web site, comprising:
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a. finding potential patients who are suitable candidates for a specific medical condition including the steps of; b. interactively qualifying interested parties utilizing predetermined criteria c. referring the qualified interested party to at least one preferred health care professional capable of offering the client'"'"'s specific product comprising; 1) electronically querying by a computer, in advance, with preferred health care professionals which can provide medical services utilizing the client'"'"'s product or therapy, 2) electronically querying by a computer a further database of said preferred health care professionals providing the patient with a preferred health care professional most appropriate to the patient; in advance of booking appointments, electronically contracting, by a computer, with preferred health care professionals to obtain pre-approved appointment slots which may be scheduled by the marketer; and
storing said data in marketer'"'"'s data base;electronically querying the patient to schedule an appointment for the patient with a preferred health care professional drawing from the data base of pre-approved appointment slots; and scheduling an appointment for the patient with a preferred health care professional drawing from the database of pre-approved appointment slots. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4)
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5. An electronic method performed on a computer for booking appointments for a client'"'"'s medical product or therapy for a patient via a marketer'"'"'s web site, comprising:
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a. finding potential patients who are suitable candidates for a specific medical condition including the steps of; 1) posting an informational website with information relevant to the specific medical condition; 2) providing by a computer interactive technical assistance reachable via the site to assist interested parties with questions relating generally to said specific medical condition, b. by a computer qualifying interested parties utilizing predetermined criteria; c. by a computer connecting the qualified interested party to at least one preferred health care professional capable of offering the client'"'"'s specific product comprising; 1) contracting in advance with preferred health care professionals which can provide medical services utilizing client'"'"'s product or therapy, 2) by a computer querying a database of said preferred health care professionals 3) by a computer providing the patient with a preferred health care professional most appropriate to patient; in advance of booking appointments by a computer, contracting with preferred health care professionals to obtain pre-approved appointment slots which may be scheduled by the marketer; and
storing said data in marketer'"'"'s data base;querying by a computer the patient to schedule an appointment for the patient with a preferred health care professional drawing from the data base of pre-approved appointment slots; scheduling an appointment for the patient with a preferred health care professional drawing from the database of pre-approved appointment slots; issuing by a computer a confirmatory communication from marketer'"'"'s database to preferred health care professional, referring to the patient by indirect data so as not to transmit name identifiable patient data over a communications channel, confirming that the time slot provided by contract is now engaged and blocking that slot from further use; in response to said confirmatory communication, allowing the health care professional to query by a computer the marketer'"'"'s secure portal and obtain patient data corresponding to that patient for said time slot; monitoring by a computer the secure portal to confirm that the health care professional has accessed and retrieved the patient data. - View Dependent Claims (6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
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Specification